Remnant Mercenaries
by lin4t
Summary: AU. In another world, technology advanced a bit quicker and the world of Remnant changed. Armed with the A.U.R.A system, Huntsmen and Huntresses alike are capable of tracking their stats, skills and achievements in a unified system. But where this system shows the top, it also blatantly shows the bottom such as one Jaune Arc who just has a bit of a problem with a skill of his.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I own nothing of RWBY which belongs to Rooster Teeth and the late Monty Owm.**

* * *

 **Chapter 1**

 **Prologue**

"Move to the side! Damnit! Block the attack at least!"

The Beast of the Abyss roared before sinking its fangs into the Aura Soldier. Said construct in the form of the classic knight did not move in time to neither dodge the attack nor block and shattered into pieces as the Grimm crushed it in its mouth.

What's even more insulting is that it was not some great Alpha Grimm that was giving him trouble was not one of the larger and more powerful Grimms but rather a minor Boarbutusk that was recently born that wasn't even half his or his Aura Soldier's size.

Seeing his last line of attack, defence and possible hope of finishing this mission, Jaune Arc gritted his teeth in anger, regret and acceptance that he was not finishing this mission in the end…again. It had been 2 years now since he was first registered as a Huntsman and was now 17 years old, one of the protectors of Remnant and yet he was unable to complete even one mission involving Grimm subjugation.

"God damn it, not again" he groaned before pocketing his hand and pulling out a small ball which he flicked the switch onto before throwing it at the Boarbutusk. A flash of light later and Jaune Arc was out of the area as if he was never there.

-o-

"So you managed to fail yet _another_ missions Jaune?" Gred the receptionist to the local guild sighed.

Jaune had a guilty look on his face and he knew exactly why. Hunters and the Guild has a close relationship together seeing that the former takes missions from the latter who scout and categorise requests into missions for money. When a Huntsman fails a mission then the Guild needs to pay the requester a fee for the failure.

Usually this fee is given to the Huntsman who failed in the first place but since Jaune was broke and barely surviving on the most basic collection and delivery missions, the receptionist who supervises Jaune is the one who has to pay the fee.

The fact that Gred didn't kick him out of the Guild and revoked his Huntsman's status was enough to make Jaune want to do anything to try to repay the man for everything he did for him. Still, it didn't change the fact that he was _heavily_ in debt to Gred and if not him the Guild after two years' worth of failed missions.

"I don't know what I'm doing wrong" Jaune admitted, "I mean I _know_ I'm not a good fighter which is why I use Aura Soldiers but for every one of them to not be able to take a single hit before being destroy?"

In the days past, Huntsmen were once those who used Aura to directly manipulate it in their bodies and use unique effects that comes from their souls to battle Grimm. It had been a long time since and innovations such as Dust, mechanical soldiers and eventually Aura Soldiers appeared to help protect humanity.

Aura Soldiers were just that. A manner of manipulating Aura externally to create constructs in the shape of a humanoid to battle. Their strengths were dependent on many things but most of all the strength of the user's aura and will only grow stronger the more they battle whether they are destroyed or not in battle.

However such a tool was not with its costs as even summoning a single Aura Soldier was straining for all but the most powerful Huntsmen without the use of select and expensive equipment to lower said costs down and even that is limited.

Jaune Arc is one of those remarkable people capable of using Aura Soldiers freely as much as he wants without the use of expensive equipment and multiple times on his own. It was only too bad that he _sucks_ at battling when it comes to it despite his good mind for tactics.

"I don't know Jaune" said Gred, "This is a problem that we haven't been able to solve for years now. Your aura is strong, that we know. And with that your Aura Soldiers should be of a higher quality than most when they start off and only get stronger with time and battle even _if_ you lose all the time with them. The experience should make them stronger with time."

"Like I said" Jaune grumbled, "They can't even take a _hit_. What experience? Every single battle I go into they can't even _move_ or _block_ and _die_ just like that."

Raising an eyebrow Gred asked, "Are you sure it's not something on your end? I mean its cut and dry of the methods to using Aura Soldiers. Hell, most people are envy you for being capable of even using them despite your reputation."

Jaune let out another grumble to that. When he started off and showed off his capability of using Aura Soldiers, many ran to him to have him in their party. A month later and constant loses thanks to said ability made him the least popular person to party with. For some reason, every single mission he went to always failed when it came to Grimm subjugation.

"Still doesn't matter if I can't use them properly."

Looking the receptionist in the eye Jaune plead, "If you have any information that could help me with this issue I have…"

"I know Jaune. I'll keep an eye out but we already looked over every single basic mechanic that could go wrong and nothing showed up. You're even capable of finishing the simulations on Aura Soldier controls properly and yet we not know of the issue."

Sighing, Jaune muttered, "Thanks" before collecting the 'reward' for the herb collection mission he did on the way on his failed Subjugation mission.

-o-

Flopping to his bed, Jaune took off his armour (old, rusty and useless compared to the new stuff) before looking at the current configuration of his Aura Soldiers.

"Activate A.U.R.A scan" he muttered before he felt the wash of something sliding through his body and a shiver as a result of it.

 **Name ID: Jaune Arc**

 **Huntsman ID: 341544**

 **Huntsman Rank: F**

 **Stats: [+]**

 **Skills: [+]**

 **Money: 67 Lien**

A.U.R.A or Automated Utility Renita Augmentation is the system that all Huntsmen use to track everything from their skills, money and pretty much everything in their lives. Civilians have a lesser version of A.U.R.A called A.R.C (Automated Renita Computer) that was developed by a distinct ancestor centuries ago to replace Scrolls which was upgraded to what Huntsmen know and use today.

Unlike A.R.C, the capability of A.U.R.A were in the areas of stats and skills in particular which are the probably the most important aspect of it that Huntsmen use to track their progress in their skills and shows what their strengths are and what weaknesses they need to fix.

Stats were all the physical aspects that affected a Huntsman while skills were more of the mental aspects that triggers certain reactions to the body allowing them to use abilities that are commonly out of reach most of the time.

"Show my stats."

 **Stats: [-]**

 **Power:** 6/25

 **Speed:** 8/25

 **Dexterity:** 5/25

 **Perception:** 12/25

 **Reaction Speed:** 9/25

 **Endurance:** 9/25

 **Stamina:** 12/25

 **Aura:** 178/25

Looking at the numbers that determined how well he would do in battle, Jaune could not help but sigh at how _low_ his stats were compared to the average of even an F rank Huntsman. The first of the numbers were _his_ stats while the second was what was _expected_ of him to get before being promoted to the next rank.

It frustrated him heavily to think that after 2 years of hard work he was still considered a 'beginner' Huntsman that couldn't be trusted with anything to dangerous. It frustrated him beyond anything else to see that those his age that started off at the same time were gaining ranks over him and were making a difference while he was stuck here doing nothing.

"Should I train my body?" he asked himself.

Ever since he got the Aura Solider skill he was frankly neglecting his personal training in order to master it. And after two years he managed to and yet nothing changed at all. That, most of that frustrated him even more.

But at the same time Jaune noticed that whenever he exercised more, he wasn't becoming stronger nor faster or really anything. It was like his body was on some sort of statis that he couldn't get out of no matter how much he tried to. That was one of the reasons why he was so invested in Aura Soldiers.

"Show skills."

 **Skills: [-]**

 **Aura Soldier (Mastered): Capable of creating Aura Constructs in the form of humanoid combat units.**

· **Mastery of skill allows for you to deploy multiple weaker Aura Soldiers or singular stronger Aura Soldier. (Can create 1 at double strength, 3 at full strength, 6 at half strength)**

· **Mastery of skill allows you to deploy multiple types Aura Soldiers in battle that you can modify at any time.**

· **Mastery of skill allows you recover half Aura spent on deploying Aura Soldiers when destroyed.**

Looking at the sole skill he has, Jaune sighed at how powerful it was. When you obtain Aura Soldiers, it takes a high amount of Aura to even make _one_ Aura Soldier to battle with and the costs only rises the stronger you want them to be. However on mastering the skill itself, such limitations are removed and you consume a pre-set amount of aura per Aura Soldier which allows the circumstances to deploy multiple of them at once if at the cost of lower strengths.

Likewise with more mastery of the skill, you are also able to deploy different types of Aura Soldiers such as ones that have more brute strength, can tank hits or move faster than the standard form that you get at the beginning.

Finally with true mastery of the skill, you are able to recover some aura whenever one of your Aura Soldiers are destroyed allowing you to deploy even more of them. Combine this effect with the ever so expensive 'Double-Recovery' equipment that doubles this effect, you would be capable of _indefinitely_ deploying Aura Soldiers in battle.

The fact that one of the Schnee in the past did so made Aura Soldiers a powerful tool to have when used right.

"Unfortunately I'm not one of them" he said to himself.

It was a waste for him to have such a powerful skill and not only that, mastering it despite being so weak. His Aura Soldiers were not even that good in battle despite all Gred claimed that he perfected his simulations in training of using them. All of that meant nothing when his Aura Soldiers refused to move in battle and die in one hit.

"…."

Remembering the failure fee and Gred once more, Jaune flinched at the thought of repaying the man. Sure he gets out of it most of the time with an ever increasing debt but when he fails too many times too soon then Gred 'requests' for him for certain personal tasks increase.

All of which were pain breaking labour tasks without pay for him for an entire day.

"Wonder if tomorrow will be better for me" he muttered to himself. He needed to pay for his keep and rent was due in a week else he would be booted from his apartment as well.

-o-

"Wait, what do you mean I have a part request?" Jaune sputtered out in shock.

Gred picked his ear lazily but at the same time had a certain glint in his eyes looking at the blonde as he repeated, "Lad, some girl came in yesterday after you were gone requesting for one who can use the Aura Soldier skill. You are the only one in this branch of the guild capable of doing so."

"But…but…"

He wanted to point out his reputation was shitty and he couldn't contribute to any sort of battle without being a burden. He wanted to point out that said girl would be highly disappointed in him in the end and that they were wasting their time.

However he was never given a chance as someone spoke behind him.

"So this is the one Mister Gred? The one that managed to master the Aura Soldier skill? Something that had never been done in decades?" asked the girl.

Jaune was surprised on how… _soft_ and _something_ this girl's voice was and could see the grin on Gred's face the moment he reacted to it.

…No, not in _that_ way. He wasn't a pervert.

"Yes, this is the lad. I ask you to take care of him because he owes me a _lot_."

Turning around Jaune saw what would be the prettiest woman he had ever seen in his life. Pretty simply wouldn't put it as she was _beautiful_ in a way that all the other woman in his life (he doesn't want to think his _sisters_ and that word together…ever) never were. Long flowing hair, extremely fit body that was surprisingly expose with the Amazon or Spartan type armour and a _glowing_ face or it seemed to so Jaune.

Basically it was an instant crush.

This also led to him panicking which led him to falling back on the only advice that he had with dealing with woman. Namely his dad who somehow only managed to get together with his mum via sheer _chance_ despite how he told his story of wooing her.

To say his dad's advice was bad was an understatement.

Without it, Jaune was sure that he could've gotten at least _five_ dates from those who seemed even a bit interested in him…well until he started _talking_ of course which only drove them off as soon as he said his first sentence.

Too bad he couldn't control his mouth in this case.

"Hi. Name is Jaune Arc. Short, Sweet, rolls off the tongue, ladies love it" he said before he could clamp his hand into his mouth.

If he tried hard enough, he could've heard Gred face-palming himself behind him as well. He really wanted to but Jaune was just frozen at the possibility of the reaction of this girl in front of him and how he humiliated himself quite well in front of her.

He didn't expect for said girl to _giggle_ at him.

"Does it now?" she asked with amusement.

Jaune blushed at the attention and was internally relieved that there were no signs of any looks of disgust being sent his way. He had way too many of those in the last 2 years than he wanted in a life-time.

"Before Jaune here makes himself look even more stupid" Gred interrupted, "Could you introduce yourself to him considering of what you want from him?"

"Of course" said girl nodded respectfully to Gred before introducing herself, "My name is Pyrrha Nikos a C rank Huntress and I'm requesting to make a party with you."

C rank…

That was really the only thing in mind for Jaune. The ranks for Huntsmen and Huntresses are special in that the requirements of reaching the next rank, _doubles_ each time you progress besides Aura itself if you show enough skill to obtain the next rank while having lower than average numbers there.

An E rank Huntsman is at least twice as strong as him. A D rank is four times stronger and a C rank is _eight_ times stronger than him in every single way. Actually it should be _sixteen_ times stronger because he wasn't even average compared to other F rank Huntsmen.

…And this kind of person wanted to party with _me_?

"I'm sorry but I can't accept" Jaune said with sorrow. Every other bit of him wanted to accept this offer and possibly break out of the F rank using her but there was no point in doing so.

He would still be a failure.

"Why not? Most people would love to party up with those higher ranks than them" Pyrrha looked curiously at Jaune.

Said failure of a Huntsman sighed.

"The problem is that I have _never_ completed a subjugation mission _ever_. Every time I go out to do such a mission it ends up as a failure because I can't… _control_ my Aura Soldiers to do anything right in actual battles" he explained.

"I'm sorry but I can't party with you. I'll only be a liability" he said again before leaving.

-o-

"Stupid stupid stupid."

It was the chance he needed. If not for possibly gaining a rank that he was striving for a long time but for the money that he could've gotten if he just accepted and did some missions with the girl.

The fact that this Pyrrha was pretty hot was only a bonus.

Jaune needed the money. That was a fact he knew because everything in the world ran on money especially for Huntsmen whose equipment were expensive to the point that they rival buy for houses. He was living off scraps at the moment and was due to be kicked out of his apartment because of his lack of money as well.

He could've sworn he could hear his apartment manager make arrangements on a new tenant when he was gone.

…Still the fact that Huntsmen only got a lot of money was thanks to missions that _always_ involved Subjugation of Grimms in one form or another. Bodyguard duty? A good stable job with limited risks if you're skilled enough. Escort duty? The same things if you're skilled enough.

Jaune Arc was not skilled in the art of combat at all.

But what he was skilled in was the art of controlling soldiers.

"Deploy…activate."

 **[Aura Soldier has activated]**

 **[Please select pre-set to be deployed]**

 **[Please select number of Aura Soldiers to be deployed]**

"Set Warrior-2. Set Knight-1."

Aura poured from his body as white light turned into the shells of two different types of Aura Soldiers. The first was one that looked like a muscular man at first sight especially in its larger than normal arms and legs. He had designed this later to boost the amount of sheer power it had compared to his first embarrassing draft of a skimpy female type warrior.

The second compared to the first was a lot thinner than the former but most distinct is of the armour that it wore. Moreover carrying a large shield on its left hand, a simple sword was equipped in its right hand. He had designed this to take a hit more than to attack. To stall, to block and to halt enemies in place.

"Set Gunner-3."

A third Aura construct appeared. Unlike the first two which were as tall as him, this one was half his height and most noticeably female like in characteristics. His first design of a Gunner was one of a muscular man who could fire off a massive amount of aura bullets. His second was of a tall slim man with a rifle.

Why should Gunners be muscular or tall? They're not the ones who would have to directly battle and take hits. Why should they be stronger rather than _fast_ with the aura used to make them focused on react faster, shoot faster and move faster?

This was his set formation to battle. One Aura Soldier to attack, one Aura Soldier to defend and one Aura Soldier as support with range.

Oh he had many other designs. Aura Soldiers that had maces to make defences, spears to pin down enemies, snipers for long range attacks and even dust users that created effective wide area attacks despite its expensive costs in using them.

He was prepared for most things.

He had to after two years and yet he still hadn't managed to use them correctly despite creating them _better_ than most would. He took time, care and effort to configure them correctly so their effectiveness would be shown in battle but it all ended up as wasted effort in the end.

What use were these Aura Soldiers when they didn't obey him when he needed.

"Summoning three Aura Soldiers…that's impressive especially for someone your age" said Pyrrha who had no intentions of even hiding from Jaune's senses.

Doing such a thing even for Jaune was…difficult when all Huntsmen and Huntresses were trained to be as silent as possible and it showed when they walked without making much of a sound without thinking about it. Stealth was ironically a big thing for Huntsmen when their enemies were Grimm who sense by some sort of _emotion_ tracking.

Taking a glance at said red-head and back to his Aura Soldiers he muttered, "Not really…I can _only_ deploy three of them at once at maximum. _Six_ is pushing the limits and they become a bit unstable when I do."

"Still, not many would have the Aura capacity to do so nonetheless" she smiled and Jaune _wanted_ to accept her offer with just that but he couldn't.

It all came down to him being too weak…no being a _disappointment_.

"Each one takes around 50 Aura units. Before I mastered the skill I could only make one of them at once so I kind of wanted to focus on it if it means I get more than one out now" he explained with a shrug.

Pyrrha looked at him strangely and said, "You have a lot of Aura don't you? Lots of _potential_."

He didn't like the predatory look on her face…

It reminded him of the early days when he told people he had a lot of aura and some girls gave him strange looks, the same one that Pyrrha was giving him right now. He had no idea of what that was but he didn't like being looked like meat to a wolf.

"Do you not want to party with me?" she asked again.

"I sorry."

"But that's not a 'no' is it? You're not rejecting because of me but rather…because of you?"

Sometimes, Jaune really hated the fact that women seemed to have this instinct to tell immediately of what was wrong and home into the core points that he didn't want to talk about with other people. Especially by an attractive peer.

"Tell me what the problem is" she commanded.

Sighing again, Jaune decided it was better to just play along to get this over with quickly. There was no point in wasting either of their time and it was better to get things done with than to hope that she wouldn't just leave him when she finds out that he's useless.

"My Aura Soldiers _suck_. Whether in movement or in taking a hit" he explained simply.

There. He could see the frown on Pyrrha's face right now and he was certain that she was reconsidering-

"How exactly are they moving? Do you just not move at all, do you jerk in place not doing anything or are they moving too slowly for them to react on time?"

He blinked. That was…surprisingly accurate of what was happening.

"They…kind of jerk in place for a second at most before moving too slowly to block while jerking when moving."

"And this doesn't happen in simulations and only in battle?"

He nodded, "Yeah."

"I see" she closed her eyes.

-Then _moved_.

 _Shitblockdefend!_

 **Clang~!**

Before my eyes, three figures moved in the way to block the strike that was going to hit him. He could see the cracks on Warrior-2's arms from the sheer pressure, Knight-1's shield was completely destroyed by that exchange and Gunner-3 was half destroyed.

"So _that_ 's the problem then" Pyrrha muttered to herself as if she didn't just try to attack him.

Jaune breathed in some relief before remembering that she just attacked him and shouted out, "Hey! What the hell was that about?!"

She replied nonchalantly, "Proving a point."

"What point?!"

All that happened was Pyrrha rushing in to attack him, him not having time to think and screaming in his head for his Aura Soldiers to protect-

…Oh.

"Wait…why did they move so…quickly?" he asked looking at his Aura Soldiers strangely.

Pyrrha shrugged, "You weren't thinking so much. That seems to be the main problem for those with a more tactician mind when using skills that require a certain _focus_ for it to work properly."

"Aura Soldiers response from commands from the mind before anything else. Speaking them aloud just makes sure that your mind doesn't wander off when you want them to do something. I bet the enemies that you were facing were quite slow and allowed you to _think_ more than you should" she explained.

Oh.

…Oh.

What?

"Huh?" he let out not sure what she was talking about.

However even though he was mostly clueless of what she was talking about she looked at him calmly with understanding of the shock he was experiencing, "Basically because you were thinking of making them do something else while they were enacting your first order, your orders ran interference with each other."

…He still didn't get it.

"You were thinking too much and made your Aura Soldiers do two opposite things at once."

Oh, now he got it. Basically he was thinking too much and it made it so that his commands were overriding each other every single time he had a different thought to what he wanted his Aura Soldiers to do.

"So how do I fix it?" Jaune asked as the next logical path to take.

"Think less, make the command you want to go through more certain, there are many mind exercises to do though the best one I believe is to think of your Aura Soldiers as part of your body" she replied.

Thinking on that, Jaune was not an idiot despite being a bit slow here and there.

"So I not-think and _want_ them to move a certain way which leaves me with capable of thinking of other stuff without it causing them to jerk and stop when I don't want to?" he pondered.

That…would get time to get used to.

It wasn't like Jaune wasn't adaptable, hell it was the opposite considering that two years ago he switched from a relatively comfortable lifestyle with no hassle and problems to one that was nothing but hassles and problems to a day to day life.

But…

"How do I know this will work" he asked, "The _simulations_ didn't work or matter when I actually went into battle. How do I know that this isn't going to be the same and will get me killed in the end?"

"Well for one" she smiled, "You'll have me with you. I'll protect you until you can learn how to fight for yourself."

Jaune gave her a confused look and yet she didn't seem frustrated or disappointment at his apparent lack of knowledge here and there. He wasn't quite the studious type and preferred to do things on the field rather by the book, even if the results weren't that great to begin with.

"What's not that known, well what people _presume_ is that Aura Soldier users are actually weak in battle on a personal level" she said.

"I actually get that" Jaune interrupted, "I mean I had to focus _everything_ on mastering this skill in order for it to be just this effective. It took me 2 years and all my other abilities didn't improve at all in that timeframe."

"Yes" she nodded, "Mastering a skill and one that isn't exactly a direct combat skill requires time, patience and more time to do so. I believe that it isn't a lack of work as some may say but more like your own circumstances. But what do these people who mastered Aura Soldier do next?"

"Do they continue to just train their ability to use them or do they make sure that the weakness that lies in them as the core part of the skill becomes less so and eventually an asset?"

"The next logical step for Aura Soldier users after managing to master the skill itself is usually on mastering themselves" she tilted her head in compensation, "Or perhaps it's in making the most effect pre-sets that they can think of. I'm not quite sure on all the details of the skill but I heard it was something to do with experience and growth?"

She looked at Jaune as if he should explain that concept to her and he considered not telling her. He rolled his eyes at the thought of _not_ telling the pretty bird in front of him about something that would only take a bit of research to find out.

…At least someone with a Gred in hand.

"Pre-sets are quite literally pre-sets on what your Aura Soldier will _look_ at. But at the same time there are certain _types_ of Aura Soldiers you can use. The three basics are melee, ranged and dust and you can split them up even more if you want the specifics" he recounted of what Gred said.

"Experience and Growth on the other hand is what Aura Soldiers _special_. With more experience in using them, the stronger they will get. If you make them block an attack, later on they will learn how to make themselves tougher to block said attack" he explained, "It's not like Aura Soldiers will gain more…aura with experience but rather the distribution of aura and the control of it becomes finer in the action that it _knows_."

Patting Warrior-2 with his hand Jaune look at Pyrrha in the eye, "This guy's pre-set pretty much makes him the muscle of the team. The reason why I made him with those muscles is to better… _visualise_ it dealing powerful attacks. Doing so and being _successful_ in such an attack will imprint _knowledge_ and _experience_ which leads to _growth_ in that particular area."

"Naturally this growth spreads to _all_ Aura Soldiers if I wish or just a certain few if I wish. It makes it easier if I want to train an Aura Soldier to dodge an attack rather than to block an attack if there aren't conflicting… _instincts_ in the way."

He sighed.

"Not that I'm actually able to do so" he muttered jerking his head towards the still crumbling Gunner-3, "All of them can't take a _hit_ and no matter what I try they don't gain any experience and therefore growth in taking a hit."

Looking over back to Pyrrha he asked, "Do you have a solution to _that_ problem?"

"…."

-Only to see that Pyrrha was thinking deeply again and was muttering a couple of things he couldn't hear. Some Huntsmen were trained to listen in like that but Jaune wasn't one of them. Heck, Jaune wasn't many types of Huntsmen out there.

"Interesting. An inability to command Aura Soldiers combined with an inability for them to gain growth after any battle" she mumbled though he could see a hint of a smile on her face.

"Jaune you are truly an interesting one" she simply said and he wanted to believe her, "I can see many others in your circumstances simply giving up on being a Huntsman and instead using such a skill like Aura Soldier as one may use an errand boy."

"Huh?"

Once more Jaune was confused on _what_ Pyrrha was talking about. Why would anyone use an awesome skill like Aura Soldier to _carry_ stuff?

…Wait, that's actually not a bad idea.

"I have a theory on why your…soldiers aren't gaining any growth and it ties in _how_ you operated them from before."

He knew what was coming and he knew now that one problem extended to the other which just made things just worse for him. He slapped his face outright before Pyrrha even said-

"Your Aura Soldiers were _'learning'_ one thing assigned to different commands. Namely you might have made them learn how to block an attack while attacking and to attack when blocking" she simply stated.

Yep, that sounded pretty bad to him.

"Don't tell me I have to retrain them all from scratch" Jaune groaned.

Poor teaching or not, that was literally two years' worth of effort made null because of countless and many mistakes that he didn't know he was doing. Looking it at an outsider's perspective, it seems that he really had to restart from scratch the teachings he had for his Aura Soldiers.

"Actually I believe you _may_ be able to delete only certain parts of your teachings. I don't wish for you have to spend months retraining them how to move the way you want to. Perhaps there's…a setting for combat data?" she hopefully advised.

"Maybe…"

Flicking up A.U.R.A in his eyes, he moved into the skills section and looked at the options that Aura Soldier had.

 **Skills: [-]**

 **Aura Soldier (Mastered): Capable of creating Aura Constructs in the form of humanoid combat units.**

· **Mastery of skill allows for you to deploy multiple weaker Aura Soldiers or singular stronger Aura Soldier. (Can create 1 at double strength, 3 at full strength, 6 at half strength)**

· **Mastery of skill allows you to deploy multiple types Aura Soldiers in battle that you can modify at any time.**

· **Mastery of skill allows you recover half Aura spent on deploying Aura Soldiers when destroyed.**

"Let's see…show combat data for skills?" he asked with a bit of hope that it would do something.

Fortunately it did.

 **Aura Soldier Options [-]**

 **Basic Movement Data [Modify Y/N?] [Delete Y/N?]**

 **Advance Movement Data [Modify Y/N?] [Delete Y/N?]**

 **Standard Combat Data [Modify Y/N?] [Delete Y/N?]**

 **Custom Combat Data [Modify Y/N?] [Delete Y/N?]**

Seeing the four options he wasn't sure which of the two combat data he was supposed to delete or whatever. At this point he was just frustrated enough to delete everything involving combat and to start over again.

However the thoughtful look Pyrrha was giving him made him not do so otherwise.

He wondered what modifications the _standard_ combat data his Aura Soldiers had.

 **Standard Combat Data [Modification]**

 **Attack [ _Attack]_**

 **Defence [ _Block]_**

 **Move [ _Dodge]_**

 **…**

Listed here were the 20 or so different _speech_ commands he could use to command his Aura Soldiers…and he didn't know about them for 2 years? How the hell did he manage to even _start_ a fight like this?

Dismissing it because he wasn't touching it he moved over to look at what his custom combat data had and hoped that he wouldn't be too bad.

 **Custom Combat Data [Modification]**

 **Warrior-1**

 **Attack [ _Set Aura to dispersion setting]_**

 **Defence [ _Set Aura to leg strengthening]_**

 **Move [ _Set Aura to arm strengthening]_**

 **…**

He didn't even make it down half the list for _Warrior-1's_ combat data before simply closing the entire thing, couching into a ball as small as possible before letting out a whimper of a groan of what a _mess_ his settings were.

 _Yeah_ it seemed his Aura Soldiers did gain experience…in the _wrong_ manner. And he knew that even correcting them all was going to take time and even then, his Aura Soldiers wouldn't be without the…influence of his previous settings at all.

Every single Aura Soldier had its own unique flare, its own way to battling based off the commands of the user, the experience from battles and how they connect together in success or failure.

Attacking well will make them _eager_ to attack better.

Blocking well will make them _eager_ to block.

And so on. And so on.

Even if he changed them, even if he reset them correctly, these _particular_ pre-sets were pretty much ruined unless he deleted _everything_ about his brand of fighting from his Aura Soldiers.

"Custom Combat Data" he said, "Delete. Confirm yet, delete it all."

 **[Custom Combat Data has been deleted]**

Sighing he looked up to Pyrrha and let out a strained grin, "Well that's one problem down. Now all I have to do is _correctly_ train them so they're good."

He could see the gears shift in her head and he could see her thinking that she could now recruit him and he knew that he was going to accept this time because Jaune Arc was given a new chance and proper chance thanks to this woman in front of him.

But what he wasn't expecting was her request this time.

"Will you let me join _your_ party Jaune?" she asked with a too sweet smile.

* * *

 **A/N: So brand new series for me to post here...considering I had in the last few months written and discard half a dozen stories that I wasn't fine with. Seriously that habit I developed from writing 'A Looped Story' in 10 pages chapters made my writing quality worse because I was trying to fit everything in 10 pages.**

 **A funny thing about quality, length _usually_ makes it better for some reason.**

 **Anyway if you haven't read the description of this story, this is an AU world of RWBY which has a surprising amount of good fics. The reason for this...simply because the _plot_ of RWBY is a bit too restraining for me. Most fics goes from Initiation to...Cardin beating on Jaune then Forever Falls and so on in a linear line. Boring when you read too many of them in a row with that exact formula.**

 **Therefore I'm going try and do something _slightly_ different. Note that there are _some_ Gamer elements but that's not the main driver of this story. **

**P.S If you haven't been able to tell already, 'A Loop Story' is kind of dead...haven't even written on that for some months now.**

 **EDIT: Just looked up some terms and found out that it's not 'Hunter' but 'Huntsman'...well I'm now using Huntsman as the male, Huntresses for females and Hunters as a collective for both.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I own nothing of RWBY which belongs to Rooster Teeth and the late Monty Owm.**

* * *

 **Chapter 2**

 **Hardship is Training**

"Will you let me join _your_ party Jaune?" she asked with a smile.

" _What_?" he blurted out without meaning to. But the sudden way she just asked that and all his expectations being of him joining her party and not the other way around unhinged his mouth with sheer shock.

"It's not a difficult question Jaune~" she said teasingly, "I want to join your party."

"I'm an F rank Huntsman" he deadpanned.

"So?"

"My reputation frankly sucks among every single other Huntsmen and huntresses I know" he added.

"I don't care."

"I _just_ reset my Aura Soldiers' experience in combat and have to retrain them all on how to react in battle. It will take time before I can even make them half as effective as before" he started to plead.

"Nope. You're not joining me for good reason" she smiled brightly at him.

Sighing in almost defeat he asked one last question, " _Why?_ "

Pyrrha paused to that, gave him another strange look before smiling softly at him which caused him to blush a bit at the attention he was getting from a girl. Still, everything Pyrrha was doing seemed to hinge on the _why_ more than anything else.

"Because I am Pyrrha Nikos."

Huh? He didn't get it.

"Because _you_ don't get what it means for me to be Pyrrha Nikos" she repeated.

He was still confused, "What does that even mean? You're Pyrrha aren't you? What does it matter in the end?"

If Jaune thought her smile couldn't get any…brighter, _stranger_ , he was wrong. The smile that Pyrrha had on her face leaked with _hope, determination_ and _desperation_ for reasons that he didn't know that someone his age could have in trying to recruit themselves in _his_ party that was eternally empty for the last 2 years.

Then he heard her whisper.

"If you ask around town on _who_ is Pyrrha Nikos than I know some of the answers."

And in an almost hollow manner she spoke, " _Invincible Girl, Champion Fighter, Celebrity_ and so on. People think they _know_ me. People watch me on the screen and then see me in reality and don't _think_ I'm a _person_ with fears, depression and my own brand of worries."

"I'm not really good at connecting with people" she stated like it was some fact but strangely enough he didn't believe that.

Cradling her head in her arms she looked at him, "I'm a bit of a loner despite being always surrounded by people."

Then she laughed. And it was _painful_ for him to hear one with such sorrow in it.

"All I want is a _friend_. No not even that, a _comrade_. _Team-mate_. Anyone that I can even remotely try to connect to in some manner."

Jaune gulped at the words. It was what he wanted as well even if he 'knew' that he wasn't one to deserve that. He didn't deserve to be that someone for Pyrrha as well. _Especially_ her now that he knew a bit of what kind of world she was living in.

" _That_ look is why I don't want you to join me" she said, "You're thinking that you're not _worth_ enough to be with me."

"…Yes."

"That's why I'm joining _you_ so it doesn't matter your opinion on me and what circumstances I am. All you need to know is that I'm Pyrrha and a team-mate, comrade and friend if you want."

" _Pyrrha_ …" he was a bit breathless admittedly.

He wasn't sure on what to do. He wasn't the type to command others just like that because he wasn't that confident he could handle any looks if anything went wrong with his plans. That was one of the reasons why he invested in Aura Soldier. Because it didn't matter if his plans screwed up.

…Life is precious.

And yet this person in front of him was handing hers just like that. _Just_ because she wanted something she didn't have before. _Just_ because she wanted something more than she had a moment before she met him.

 _Just_ because she was as lonely as him who was nothing and had nothing.

He didn't know much about Pyrrha Nikos that the world knew but he knew that Pyrrha was a girl that was as lonely as him, as friendless as him and as desperate as him to have that _something_ that was promised when they signed up to be protectors of the world against the Grimm.

"Fine."

He might as well do this. Accepting her in _his_ party wasn't something he expected to happen but he owed her a lot by fixing his mistakes and letting him a fresh start as a Huntsman with the potential to grow from now on.

"You can join me if you want" he smirked, "Try not to fall behind as I sprint forward in my career."

He liked the look she was having. The look of shock, joy and laugher being mixed together…

-o-

"So you managed to get Jaune to join your party?" Gred asked. He was filling off some paperwork on a couple other Huntsmen that he was also working with. Jaune wasn't his _only_ responsibility.

Jaune smirked. So did Pyrrha.

They talked about Gred for a bit and both found that Gred was either too overly serious when you didn't want to or too 'playful' when you didn't want to as well. Namely, he has a nack of tipping you off balance and wring out information that he later use as blackmail.

So Jaune wanted some revenge. A petty prank, nothing more so to see Gred shocked for once.

"Nope~" she popped the 'p' with a slow draw.

He grinned, "She joined _mine_. There's a bit of a difference there you know."

Said receptionist's jaw dropped at Jaune in an almost worshipping look. The blonde could almost see the thoughts running through Gred's head leading from _how_ and _why_ to the conclusion that was naturally-

"Damn I didn't know you were _that_ good in the sack."

- _Definitely_ not that…

"Wha?" Jaune sputtered out with a healthy blush consuming his head rapidly as thoughts turned into images in his head. Images that would get his mother, multiple sisters and any friends that they had in range running up to him to beat him up for _daring_ to think of such a thing.

Pyrrha was faring better…or worse depending on how you look at it. On one hand she was certainly blushing quite a bit but it wasn't those embarrassed looks but rather the opposite that she _wasn't_ thinking of much of anything because her brain short circuited at that moment.

" _What the hell are you saying you perverted old man?!_ " Jaune shrieked loud enough that others noticed him.

Gred changed his expression immediately to not that was not at all interested in anything at the same time while picking his ear a bit. Raising an eyebrow, the receptionist then commented quite bluntly, "What? Both of you were grinning for some reason. I thought you two wanted to thank me for letting you shag together."

Looking at the time on the clock Gred raised his eyebrow again, "Though you did quick work on her Jaune to let you in her pants so quickly."

" _We didn't sleep together or had sex!"_ he screamed again, this time managing to snap Pyrrha out of her trance as well who unhelpfully added a bit too quickly, "That's right, nothing happened of that nature at all."

…To quickly for Gred to believe in fact.

"Sure…" he drawled out making Jaune twitch. The blonde Huntsman really wanted to punch Gred in the face right now. He was doing _this_ in front of Pyrrha? The person he was going to spend a lot of time with? If things weren't already awkward with her being pretty…

As if he hadn't seen Jaune glare at him or just outright ignoring the teenager, Gred flicked the screen that was in front of him a couple of times before asking in a far more professional tone, "So you wish to register Pyrrha Nikos into your party?"

That got a lot of heads moving.

"Yeah."

Looking over to Pyrrha he then asked, "Do you agree to this?"

"I suggested it" she simply stated not caring for the looks that they were getting. Man, Jaune had a bad feeling that there were going to be a lot of people hating his guts right now. If Pyrrha was as popular as she said she was, well he just had to endure in exchange for something better in his life.

A few taps later, Gred seemed to have finished doing his administrative stuff before flicking over a card that only existed between the two of them before Jaune caught it and allowed it to be absorbed into his A.U.R.A system.

 **[Party has been registered]**

 **[Options available]**

 **[Pyrrha Nikos has been registered as part of your party]**

"Did the messages appear fine?" Gred asked then adding when Jaune gave him a strange look, "Procedure protocol here. Party leaders need to confirm that someone is part of their party. There was a glitch a while back that caused a couple of people to lose their rewards."

"How is that a problem?" asked Jaune.

The receptionist gave a sneer, "Those party leaders didn't split the rewards and took it all. Sure they were forced to give the rewards to their parties properly afterwards but it still leaves a bad taste when you hear about it. That Cardin guy doesn't exactly have a good reputation…well in most things even if he's a decent Huntsman."

So I better not try to meet up and socialise with this Cardin guy, got it.

"Is there anything else we require to do?" Pyrrha asked suddenly, "We need to do some training for Jaune to fix a couple of problems that he's having."

Jaune could see the grin on Gred's face but it wasn't one of perversion but one that was glad that Jaune was being helped out properly and by someone who actually cared for him more than just a person to work with.

…Then that smile turned _vicious_.

"Just…one thing you need to know" said Gred slowly and it took Jaune a few seconds to know what his 'only' friend was talking about.

 _'Crap'_

"The failure fees for missions vary in costs but the easiest subjugation missions having a failure fee of around 1000 Lien each time. Jaune had attempted this same mission weekly for the last 2 years."

Jaune gulped.

"However earlier on, Jaune was doing these missions and failing them _daily_ which was reduced to twice a week and eventually weekly after a year totalling 183 _failed_ missions of the same type" he continued while Jaune was really sweating now.

Gred didn't give a look of sympathy at all to Jaune as he declared, "You have a debt of 183 000 Lien."

Jaune wanted to faint but he was more concern about the reaction of Pyrrha more than anything else. Being alone was _nothing_ but with Pyrrha perhaps he could…if she was gone then he was back to zero and he would have no idea on what to do next.

...Or whether he wanted to be a Huntsman after so many failures.

"That's…a couple of C rank missions or a good B rank mission then" muttered Pyrrha before smiling brightly to Jaune, "Don't worry. We'll get your debt in control sooner or later. The guild really doesn't care about debt unless you're bailing out of the Huntsman business or have no intentions of ever paying them back."

"And Jaune here never gave up" pipped Gred.

"Even if he failed a _bit_ too much for my taste" he added cheerfully.

Jaune exchanged his look from Gred to Pyrrha and back again a couple of times before settling to saying, "You don't care that I have a lot of debt on me?"

"Like I said, a few C rank missions or a _single_ B rank mission" Pyrrha didn't look that impressed of the debt in itself which was good…or worrying in many other ways. Like if missions payout were this high than why were most Huntsmen modest in their riches.

As if reading his mind Pyrrha explained, "Huntsmen and Huntresses don't really make that much of a net profit after each mission. In reality around 10% of the reward is taken as tax by the Kingdom, another 10% tax by the Guild and half of the actual reward taking up various other costs like repair for broken equipment, ammo and especially dust. That leaves only 30% of the reward left which is mostly saved up for some better Huntsman equipment."

"And the really good stuff cost in the _millions_ mind you" Gred 'helpfully' added.

Jaune frowned at that, if that's the case then-

"How do families like the Schnee end up so rich then? I mean, the expense explains why _my_ family isn't that rich even when the majority of us decide to become Huntsmen and Huntresses" asked Jaune.

"Mining mostly" shrugged Gred, "There're some conversely on how they treat their Faunas 'workers' but mining for dust especially is good business when there are rarely other competitors."

"And they're the reasons why dust costs so much though I don't blame them considering the risks on mining something so volatile as dust" said Pyrrha.

"Is that why dust users are so rare?" he wondered.

His now party member and partner nodded, "That and it isn't worth it to use dust _directly_ in combat if you don't have extreme control over it or have a semblance that compliments the use of dust a lot. The Schnee family for example have the semblance of Glyph that allows multiple use of dust in manners that other cannot replicate."

Gred patted his chin to that, "Still doesn't explain _how_ that family managed to breed that _exact_ same semblance to every single member of their family. The Arc family is known for protection type semblance but they differ most of them in some aspect going from fire protection to projectile protection for example."

"Wait a sec" Jaune interrupted for a second time, "I just have one question."

Gred gave him a look of deadpan as if he already knew that he was going to ask. Pyrrha on the other hand had no idea but still was in a good enough mood to help explain things to Jaune as much as she could.

"What's a semblance?"

Gred let out a groan while Pyrrha bit her lower mouth in worry of Jaune's lack of general knowledge in these things. He knew the ins and outs of Aura Soldiers but for other things…he was surprisingly ignorant of them.

"Please take this…idiot away before he spreads the disease" grunted Gred in reluctant, "I still have other people to serve you know."

"What?" Jaune looked around confused, "I was just asking a question."

Several sets of sighs and groans were heard at that moment.

-o-

"So basically semblance is a skill or something that may or may not appear later on in my life and I'll know when it does?"

"That's the gist of it."

"Huh. Do you have one?"

Pyrrha nodded, "Yeah it's the power of _polarity_ which allows me to control metal to a certain extent like a magnet I guess. Although not many people know that considering I'd never needed to use it on such a large scale before and there isn't that much metal to use in the wilderness."

"That's kind of cool though" Jaune mused, "To be able to control metal like that…wait wouldn't that mean you could control other people's armour and weapons?"

He shot her a look to prove him right or wrong. It didn't matter to him that much but it would be really awesome to know that if any other Huntsmen or Huntresses tried to pick on his party from now on, Pyrrha can have them beat easily.

"Yes but I try not to use it too often" she admitted sheepishly, "If I rely on it too much then I'll be easily defeated when I'm not using it at all."

That was true, Jaune admitted but there had to be other effects that came with control metal.

"What about sensing metal then?" he asked, "I mean if you can control it, doesn't that mean you can sense the metal around us as well?"

"Well…yeah but considering that the cities are filled with so much metal I usually leave that feature at a close range" she said.

"But where're in a village…pretty far from a city and most houses are made of wood and even the apartments for Huntsmen are too" replied Jaune, hands cradling the back of his head, "If it's here, you can probably sense as much metal in this entire place without trouble."

"Hmm…that's an interesting prospect. That would indeed would be an advantage against… _other_ foes that we may need to fight in the future in such areas" she commented shielding her thoughts from him.

Jaune didn't mind at all and kept on walking to the place he used to train all the time for his Aura Soldiers. It was a place a bit far off the village that he was in, certainly outside the protective walls but close enough that he could make a run for it to safety, not that it was particularly dangerous in these areas.

At most only Boarbutusks wandered near enough to be a threat and even Jaune was capable of running away from enough well enough though there was only a low chance that he was capable of _beating_ one despite all his training. That aside, he didn't even have a _sword_.

Arriving to the location of his training for the last two years Jaune turned to Pyrrha and asked, "So, what am I doing first?"

Looking considerate the champion only started to list things off her finger, "Re-configuration of your Aura Soldiers to fighting shape, training your body for most stamina and defence in general, might make you pick up some swordplay for self-defence not to mention some aura-"

"Okay okay, I have a lot to do" sighed Jaune, "Can we start on the simplest task first?"

"You mean…the one that will hurt your body a lot or the one that will hurt your mind a lot?"

"…The latter please, I had enough information shoved in my brain that I need some time to process all of it" he admitted while Pyrrha drew her sword/spear/pointy weapon-thing.

"Good" she smiled.

Jaune gulped as the atmosphere cooled down a couple degrees in an instant. He really didn't like the look on her face. As he watch her weapon _extend_ into something longer and yet somehow more threatening he had a sudden regret that he might have chosen the wrong chose especially when he thought of what kind of training that involved the body in a lot of pain.

"You're going to make me run a lot aren't you?" he asked.

"Yep~"

Knowing that it was this or staying weak, Jaune didn't at all hesitate when Pyrrha moved to slash at him (hopefully with the blunt end) of her weapon. He also didn't hesitate to scream in fear before scrambling away and sprinting as fast as he could. If this was the beginning of his training he sure didn't want to know the rest of it!

"Keep running as long as you can! I'll start attacking you after 10 minutes and if you slow down too much before that…I'll start attacking you even faster!" she declared as she chased after her now leader.

-o-

Lying on the ground, a small puddle of sweat came from Jaune's body as he was just ran ragged into pure exhaustion to a point that he had never experienced before. His legs felt like a combination of jelly and lead most of all and he struggled to even sit straight up without pain from his back when he dodged Pyrrha's attacks.

Speaking of Pyrrha –

"Not bad for the first time" she said looking not that interested at the glare Jaune sent her, "You lasted for a good hour which is more than most I'd helped trained in the past."

"All of them cursed your name didn't they?"

"More or less."

"And you're only to make the training even worse from now on aren't you?"

The red-head blinked at Jaune and said, "Of course. How else are you going to get stronger at a good pace? We don't exactly have that much time to waste years on only this level of fighting if we want to advance higher in the ranks."

"Wait" Jaune somehow managed to raise a palm up, "What do you mean advancing up the ranks?"

Once more, Pyrrha was stunned silence and that wasn't exactly a good thing. But at the same time it only made her realise on how much Jaune needed to be taught to be a good leader and especially if he wanted to keep people in his party. There was a reason why most leaders were the most intelligent ones and that wasn't just because most Huntsmen and Huntresses were…not that good with thinking with their brains.

"Isn't that the goal of all Hunters?" she asked, "Getting stronger means rising through the ranks and therefore going on even harder missions that better protect people."

"Yeah" he scratched his cheek, "How exactly does a person rise in the ranks as a Hunter?"

Pyrrha couldn't help but openly sigh this time. At this rate she would need to recruit other people into the party just to help lecture him in all the things that he seemed to not know. And it seemed to be a lot of things as well.

"You know the stats that you can see via the A.U.R.A?"

Jaune nodded, "Yeah. The one to the left is my stats and the one to the right is the average stats of a Hunter of my current rank."

"Actually…that's the stat number that you require for the _next_ rank" she explained, "And in fact you don't need to raise all of those stats just to raise one rank. To get from rank F to E you just need to meet one of those requirements. From rank E to D you need to meet two of those requirements and so on."

"How come the system was made this way?" Jaune wondered.

He continued, "Is it because it would take too long to train someone in excels in all areas than just a few? Or is it because they expect stronger Huntsmen to be better rounded the higher rank they are?"

"A bit of both actually" she admitted, "If not for those requirements you could be easily be a C rank, the same as mine and we both know that you're not ready for that especially due to the gaps in your training and lack of experience in fights."

Looking away shamefully Jaune wanted to crawl in a hole and just stay there for the rest of his life. He wasn't suicidal but he wasn't without his bout of depressions especially when he is reminded of what he could've been instead of what he was right now.

However it looked like Pyrrha wanted none of that and patted his shoulder, "Don't worry Jaune, you'll make more than it up later on when you get a hang on using your Aura Soldier skill, there is a reason why it is considered one of the stronger skills out there."

"Isn't it because it allows you to summon three allies at any time?" he asked before pausing and adding, "Or how the skill allows you to substitute a sacrifice if things get too bad? I mean sometimes when I got unlucky and got hit, my aura flared up and I didn't take damage but my Aura Soldiers all disappeared at the same time."

….

….

Pyrrha seemed to pause on those words and they _did_ make sense but they weren't the best answers as well. She was missing something. From what Jaune told her of the skill (which he mastered) and what some other people told her (some of which also mastered the skill), there were some differences in their experiences.

One was that Jaune really shouldn't have the Aura to even _summon_ three fully powered Aura Soldiers at his current state. It was no secret on the sheer high requirements to use the skill. In order to summon an Aura Soldier of equal strength _power_ wise to a Huntsman you needed to give up as much Aura as a Huntsman of which rank you wanted.

She herself had _just_ barely the minimum requirement to _learn_ said skill but not master it and her Aura capacity was above average. And Jaune somehow managed to learn said skill and master it despite probably having less Aura than the required amount and not enough proficiency to master it.

F rank required no more than a mere amount less than 25 Aura, E rank required from 25-50 Aura, D rank required 50-100 Aura, C rank required 100-250 Aura, B rank required 250-500 Aura and A rank required 500-1000 Aura.

To summon an Aura Solider equal to an S rank required more than 1000 units of Aura to which already placed them as S rank Huntsman or Huntresses already.

And that was the problem Pyrrha was having with Jaune's use of his Aura Soldiers. They weren't _strong_ for the amount of Aura he said he used to make them; D rank Aura Soldiers could _easily_ bush away any damage from the likes of Boarbutusk without a scratch. However Jaune's own… _shattered_ on impact even from her attacks which she held back on to the point that it wouldn't harm him…a lot.

Besides, it wasn't the issue of Aura not being allocated the right way that was causing this problem. That was just a matter of efficiency which would've hit him hard if he wanted to fight better with them. No, the problem she was having was what was causing his Aura Soldiers to be so weak…

…Or was it something else that could affect a skill like that.

' _No, it couldn't be'_ she thought. But at the same time it was the only thing that could affect skills like that. It was also the only thing that A.U.R.A couldn't record properly because you couldn't _just_ measure souls like that despite being capable of measuring the amount of Aura you could use.

"Semblance" she said in an almost horrid tone.

It was the strength…and bane of all Huntsman and Huntresses. You couldn't predict of what it could be. You couldn't predict what it could do to your skills. You couldn't do anything but watch as it affects your life from now on till your death.

Her ability of Polarity made her extra sensitive to metal in particular and even magnetic fields which made it _hell_ for her to live in the city before she got it under control. She wasn't even able to hold a fork in her hand without it bending when she was too lax or too attentive let alone wear actual metal armour.

While it was certainly a massive advantage, her semblance didn't exactly make a good impression on her as it almost drove her to think about suicide to make the pain go away more than she ever admitted.

…And such a thing seemed to have happened to Jaune as well but rather screwed with any chance he could become _something_ if not for her.

"Semblance?" Jaune echoed with no idea of what was going on in Pyrrha's head. If he could, he would've realised of the information and implementation of what semblance could and would do to you and your career especially when you didn't know you had one yet.

"Yes semblance" she repeated, "I… _think_ that may be the reason."

"The reason? The reason for what?" he once more echoed.

He stood up because his legs were finally getting somewhere being better rested than minutes ago as Pyrrha pressed him down with hands on his shoulders while looking down on him with sad eyes before sighing.

"Jaune…I don't know how to say this" she said slowly at the same time Jaune's eyes became wide open saucers.

' _No no no no no, this can't be happening. It had only been not even a DAY. A freaking DAY!_ ' he mentally roared.

He knew that look. He knew the look of someone wanting to put him down to his uselessness and yet didn't want to hurt him that much. It was the same look he had for a while when he began and when people wanted to hope that he could get better but disappeared when he didn't.

Pyrrha was letting him go.

And he didn't want that.

" _NO!_ " he screamed tackling her onto the ground, pinning her down with his arms and weight not caring of what this would look like to other people and not caring what she would think of him later on.

 _He was not letting her go!_

" _I'm not letting you leave me!_ " he screamed as Pyrrha struggled to get him off her, one part thanks to not wanting hurt him and the other due to shock, mostly.

At that point, Pyrrha realised what Jaune was saying and decided to stay slack for a few moments, letting Jaune calm down a bit before brushing her hand to his cheek gently while smiling.

"Jaune, I'm not leaving you."

Said blonde looked at her stupefied.

"Huh?"

And his brain didn't seem to have caught up yet.

"I'm not leaving you. Not want I already decided to join you and not the other way around. Not when I invested a lot of time tracking someone like you to be in the same party as" she said.

She looked down where their bodies pressed together and politely asked, "So can you get off me now? You're a bit heavier than I expected with the armour…and a surprising amount of muscle down there."

One beat….two beats…three-

" _I'msosorryaboutthatpleaseforgiveme_!"

-And Jaune was off her blushing so much that his face outclassed the colour of her hair by a fair margin.

"Don't worry about."

"I'm sorry for-"

"I said _don't_ worry about it. I understand where you're coming from" she repeated with a bit more steel this time though it may have been a bit too much since her leader was currently frozen on the stop.

" _Everyone_ doesn't response to rejection that well repeatedly most of the time" she shrugged, dragging the conversation along, "But that wasn't what I was about to talk to you about."

"Oh."

Nodding now that she actually had his attention she said, "I have a…theory. It's on the off-chance, hopefully not likely at all but it may bring some fruit on why your Aura Soldier skill seems so… _off_ compared to all the records and those others I know who have the skill."

"Huh? What are you talking about?" he asked, face turning to a frown this time.

"Usually, Aura Soldiers take up a set amount of Aura per rank of the abilities of said construct that you want to create, summon or deploy into battle. 50 units of Aura is enough to get what is equal to a D rank Huntsman."

She paused hoping that Jaune got what she was saying about this. He didn't.

"D rank Huntsmen basically don't take _any_ damage from the likes of…say a Boarbutusk and what you told me, you were certainly using that amount of Aura to make them to battle for you."

"But they get destroyed in one hit!" he exclaimed.

Feeling like this was going to take a while to explain she simply nodded, "I know. _That's_ the problem. You _mastered_ the skill. It is certain that you know _exactly_ how much aura you wanted and needed to use to make an Aura Soldier."

Looking at him straight in the eye she declared, "In fact I don't think you have the typical Aura Soldier skill. Please describe what the mastery of the skill you have entitles?"

"Well…" he brought up the skills screen from his A.U.R.A and simplified it, "Basically I have the choice of making one Aura Soldier at double strength, three Aura Soldiers at full strength or six Aura Soldiers at half strength-"

"That" she interrupted "Doesn't exist for the skill. Aura Soldier allows you to deploy Aura Soldiers based on varying strengths based on the amount of Aura you use. There is not 'double' strength, 'full' strength or 'half' strength at all. Actually tell me, how much Aura does one Aura Solider at 'full' strength take and had that amount changed at all?"

Her leader pondered on that before answering, "Around…30% I suppose and it used to be a bit more than half my total Aura before I mastered the skill."

Now Jaune really frowned at this knowledge. He had no idea if this was correct or not but he trusted Pyrrha to know that she wasn't lying to him. She was the honest type for one and she has no _reason_ to lie to him most of all.

"Besides that, mastery allows me to deploy multiple types of Aura Soldiers at the same time-" he paused to see Pyrrha nodded to that. Good, it seems that his skill wasn't that…off.

"And finally whenever an Aura Solider gets destroyed I get half the Aura back."

"Okay, the last two points are what I expect from the skill and are correct…but for the first part to be different…" she mused before bitting her bottom lip.

Pyrrha looked at Jaune dead in the eye and stated, "Most likely due to your Semblance causing this change."

"My sembl- you mean the soul skill thing?"

Seeing the nod Jaune sighed that he didn't get that wrong as well. Learning stuff was difficult for him especially when all he did was focus on mastering Aura Soldier as much as possible in hopes that mastery might give him something to work with.

It didn't in the end, not that it mattered since the skill was different from what Pyrrha knew.

Did he really even learn Aura Soldier or something that is similar and inferior to it?

"Semblance" Pyrrha started to speak, "Is something that we cannot control and may and often have negative effects on us unless we control it. And at times we can't control it and it affects some of our skills whether we liked it to or not."

"How bad is it for me?" he asked.

She didn't sugar-coat it at all, "I don't know but for now it practically is crippling you as a Huntsman without any other skills beside Aura Soldier. Usually you would want to learn a skill each time you rise in ranks so you have time and experience to master them enough that they aren't a hindrance but…you may need to learn another skill to aid you which will take more time."

Jaune sighed heavily and pinched his nose not wanting to scream out in the sheer frustration he was feeling throughout his body. Why him? Why did fate want to make things just that much harder for him?

He had such high hopes, everyone had such high hopes for him to become as strong as possible and what did he have to show for it in 2 years? F rank Huntsman with a skill that was broken to the point it may as well cripple him when he used it. What was the point of having such a skill when it only made it worse for him?

"But it's not all bad you know" Pyrrha smiled, "Often the semblances that hinder you the most in the beginning are often the most powerful of them all. I almost went insane for good while when my _Polarity_ semblance caused me to _feel_ and _know_ all metal around me constantly to the point I thought my brain would break when I was in a city."

Her eyes hardened, "And more than that, there are a couple of things I want to clarify about what your semblance does and how it affects Aura Soldier."

"Okay…sure?" he wasn't sure on how to response at this point. Pyrrha didn't seem to want him to be depressed for some reason but he wasn't one to reject others especially when they could become his friends!

"You said…that your aura flashed at one point when almost taking a hit?"

"Yeah" he nodded, "Boarbutusk smashed through one of my Aura Soldiers when I didn't expect it and when I was less experienced."

He grimaced but continued, "I thought I was really about to die or at least about to get seriously injured because I hadn't – and still haven't – learnt about active aura protection and my passive aura protection wouldn't do much in that circumstance anyway."

"When the Boarbutusk was about to…hit me, my aura flashed white at that moment it's attack connected to me before it was rebounded off away, like it's attack reflected on itself but after all, _all_ my remaining Aura Soldiers burst into pieces, destroyed without taking a single hit."

Pyrrha sat there making mental notes rapidly. What was said was…interesting but the implications that Jaune didn't realise was even more so. His semblance… _blocked_ which was typical for one of the Arc family but how it so was even more so.

1) The attack reflected on itself, meaning the force of the attack reflected back at the enemy

2) Whatever this cause was, left Jaune unharmed

3) Instead his semblance seemed to inflict the damage to his Aura Soldiers instead

4) This makes a connection that his semblance has connected to his Aura Soldier

She was missing a few points but Pyrrha had a theory…

…And if this theory was right then Jaune _might_ become one of the most frightening Huntsman in many generations on what he could.

But there was so much missing that she didn't know if she was right or not. There was so much she didn't know but if stacked the right way or wrong way might make Jaune a decent fighter or a _monster_ to face in combat.

30% of one's aura to create a copy of yourself that has the same combat strength as you and up to 90% of your Aura to create three of you. The implications of this showed a lot of potential, enough that Jaune may end up stronger than her in the end.

Still, everything depended on how much hard work Jaune would do in the end.

* * *

 **A/N: Another chapter posted and I _think_ most of the errors are gone. There are probably some more I missed because editing and proofreading on your own is hellish for too many reasons. There might be some terms... _off_ because I did a last second edit on 'Hunter' to 'Huntsmen' with the former being the collective of Huntsman and Huntress.  
**

 **Anyway, now we somewhat know that its Jaune's semblance that's screwing him up...but at the same time it is a pretty powerful one to have in this AU especially for Jaune in the future, that is, if he lives that long. I actually have the name, effects and why it effects his Aura Soldier skills down as well and it'll be appearing in a few chapters (I think). I think its pretty close to what we know of Canon Jaune's semblance.**

 **Also, hopefully my chapters length will increase when I finally get some action scenes later on. This and the last chapter were only 6K long each.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I own nothing of RWBY which belongs to Rooster Teeth and the late Monty Owm.**

* * *

 **Chapter 3**

 **Suicidal Replacements**

A month, Jaune reminisced. That was how long he was training under Pyrrha and every moment of it involved training that broke down his body in one way or another and rebuilt it up again to the point that he didn't even see himself and think it was _him_ that was staring back in the mirror.

He was certainly not that buff the last time he looked at himself in the mirror shirtless.

Then there was that _one_ (It was only one time!) incident where Pyrrha actually caught him in the act of checking himself out in the mirror that resulted in him blushing whenever he could see her and training unfortunately being even harsher – and unfortunately was possible – than before.

For reasons unsaid he wasn't focusing on using his Aura Soldiers considering his disabilities with it that may never improve. But on the bright side he actually had a partner and teacher now! That and while Pyrrha never let him fight, he didn't learn a lot just from watching her fight and demonstrating for him.

But there were results and he couldn't complain about results, especially the ones in front of him as he looked at his stats from his A.U.R.A system.

"Activate A.U.R.A scan" he muttered before saying, "Show my stats."

 **Stats: [-]**

 **Power:** 10/25

 **Speed:** 13/25

 **Dexterity:** 5/25

 **Perception:** 12/25

 **Reaction Speed:** 12/25

 **Endurance:** 18/25

 **Stamina:** 20/25

 **Aura:** 179/25

His Power increased by 4 points, Speed by 5 points, Reaction Speed by 3 points, Endurance by 7 points, Stamina by 8 points and his Aura by 1 point though the last point was more because he was aging and growing rather than his own effort.

Pyrrha had certainly put him in a grinder in the single month she had with him. She forced him to run and _run_ some more mostly making sure he could last more than combat. It wasn't like he didn't understand her methods of training but there were some points which he could have a better understanding of.

-Even more so when his own training was dragging Pyrrha down and he needed to get stronger as fast as possible.

"Hey Pyrrha" he asked after another day of training he was slowly getting used to in habit of doing, "Why are you training me so much for my stamina in particular? And also my speed now that I think about it?"

Given the look she gave him ever so more frequently, it seemed that it was expected for him to know this answer to this. He long since stopped flinching when Pyrrha gave even a slightly indication of being frustrated with his long list of questions.

Hey, it wasn't his fault that the requirements of _being_ a Huntsman were so low. He didn't even need to do any tests at all besides confirming that he could use Aura. Knowledge wasn't exactly high on the list he wanted to do when he was lacking money and needed to focus on mastering Aura Soldier more than anything else as well.

"…Jaune, please tell me of which stats seems to be the most important to a Huntsman."

Surprised by the turn of the question, Jaune thought on it for a moment before answering, "I suppose Power and Speed? I mean you need both to be really good at fighting."

Pyrrha nodded in agreement, "Yes that is true to an extent but they are not the most important aspects Huntsmen should focus on. Power and Speed can only bring you so far without the Dexterity to wield weapons properly, the Perception to track enemies and the Reaction Speed to physically attack or defend yourself in battle without taking a moment to think. But no Jaune, they are not the most important stats to focus on."

Crossing out every single stat that his partner had listed, there were only three left for Jaune to consider. Endurance which is more to the line of knowing how to take a hit and how to deal with pain, Stamina which is basically _stamina_ and Aura which is the core of Huntsman teachings.

He took a wild guess.

"Then it's stamina?"

"Yes it is" she nodded along, " _Stamina_ is how much energy our bodies can put out. Stamina is how long we can fight to exhaustion. Stamina is how long you can _keep on doing_. List me three reasons why having someone who can last even a minute longer than another Huntsman is an advantage to have…or in some cases less of a disadvantage."

Seeing that this is the second question Pyrrha gave him in such a short time, Jaune took the chance of her patient lasting as long as he needed to get an answer. But more than that, Jaune took a closer look at the 'stats' that A.U.R.A managed to track. The system wasn't perfect, everyone knew that but it was capable of tracking mostly the _physical_ aspects of a Huntsman.

-But more than that, what was more stamina used for?

"More stamina means we can keep on fighting for longer right?" he looked at Pyrrha tapping a single finger. Good, he was sure one this point. Bad news, he wasn't sure on anything else.

"Yes that is one of the more obvious benefits of more stamina."

He could've sworn Pyrrha was blushing slightly for some reason. Must be the heat or something, it has been a bit hotter than a few weeks ago. Summer was close by now and even Jaune wanted to get out of his low quality armour that conducted too much heat in his opinion.

So…what two other reasons could he think of on the top of his hat?

"You have two more reasons left" she reminded him. That really only placed a 'bit' more pressure on him.

He didn't want to disappoint her. He was sure he disappointed her on many different ways and at every single time he went ahead and tried to fix his mistakes…often with Pyrrha helping him. He didn't want her to-

No. Those thoughts aren't the best to be thinking, he considered.

"…Umm…more stamina means you don't get exhausted as often?" he asked with all the uncertainty in his tone alone. He really didn't know what he was saying, "And that means you can carry and use heavier stuff like armour without it dragging you down so much?"

He was really bullshitting at this point and only because his own armour was weighing down on him too much for comfort for too long.

However when Jaune expected for Pyrrha to say he was wrong, she let out a small smile and nodded, "Yes, armour in particular is crucial for close combat types that are more liable to taking hits than all other types of Huntsmen and Huntresses. More stamina does indeed help with using them easier."

"Okay but I have a question" he said while once more thinking of his armour and Pyrrha who was wearing more and yet was less hindered than him.

"Yes?"

"How much does your armour weigh?" he asked

"…That's an awfully personal question" Pyrrha looked slightly uncomfortable.

"Huh?"

He looked again and found that he still didn't get it. Armour was armour…right? How was that personal? Though…for some reason Jaune's sisters avoided the same questions in the past when he asked them as well. What was with women and armour weight?

"If you wish to know my armour weighs a total of 15 Kgs which is among the heavier types of armour designs to take more impact damage from enemies" she explained.

Jaune frowned to that. His own armour weighed around 25 Kgs and it looked like it didn't even have a faction of the protection Pyrrha's armour had. But thinking it over some more, Jaune realised that this was the difference between crap quality and good quality equipment.

Huntsmen and Huntresses needed to be fast. With the world of Remnant being split into 4 Kingdoms and countless smaller villages spread all over the place, transportation in particular has been developed quite well to shorten the time needed to transport the protectors of Humanity from place to place.

However not all places could be reached via vehicle and it was more often than not that they would have to personally run to the location and battle immediately without rest to protect as many people as possible. For this reason alone, armour needed to be as light as possible while giving maximum protection.

He really needed to buy better armour at least for his safety.

"Okay, now what is the third reason why stamina training is so important? You got the lasting longer in battle and being able to use heavier armours as the first two points" his eyes traced her hands to her hips unconsciously as he gulped.

Jaune really didn't know what the last thing was.

Therefore he resulted to the default answer that seemed to always be important.

"-Aura" he muttered.

Pyrrha smiled, being satisfied with that answer it seemed.

"That's correct. Aura is probably the most important thing a Huntsman or Huntress could have and allows us to be stronger, faster and last longer in battle. In fact Aura is such a powerful too because it is a multiplier. The amount depends on how much Aura you have as well…around a tenth of the numerical value I believe at best" she said before moving to a tree and punching it once.

The tree cracked and Jaune gulped.

" _That_ was without Aura."

She punched again.

-And the tree gave way and fell.

"And that was with Aura."

Jaune numbly nodded to the power that Pyrrha seemed to have and wondered when he could even match her. He also wondered what her stats were like if she was this strong and was only a C rank Huntress.

"And I'm being a 'but' here" he replied eventually examining the demonstration. There had to be a point here and it was just on the tip of his tongue and in the wording of what his partner just said,

"Yes. Aura unlike with all other physical aspects cannot multiple how much _stamina_ you have which is why stamina training for a Huntsman or Huntress is so much more important" she explained, "Sure having Aura helps you supplement some of your stamina to leech from your Aura instead but it does not… _multiply_ it but rather subtracts it from its own reserves."

"So…basically Huntsmen can train to be stronger or faster easily because Aura is more useful that way."

"It is simply a matter of applying a certain amount of Aura to ensure you get those effects, not to mention Aura also protects you from any damage you may take otherwise due to its nature."

"Is that the reason why I'm still gaining points in stuff like Power and Speed?" he wondered, "I mean, all you did was make me work on stamina and yet they increased half as much."

Pyrrha scoffed to that, "The fact that the amount of stamina you seemed to have gained was double of all other side-effects is proof enough that my training is effective. It's usually several times harder to gain stamina than muscles to be stronger or faster."

"Yep, I only have you to thank for that" Jaune grinned.

"Still, I thought it was best to improve on your stamina so you can better keep up with me later on. The gap between different kinds of training is hard to close in such a short time."

"Yeah…"

Once more, Jaune really didn't like to be reminded on his shortcomings. That was one of the main reasons why he trained so much and complained so little. He _needed_ this training to catch up to other Huntsmen and he needed this in order to not be a liability.

"So more stamina training?" he asked.

"More stamina training" she agreed, "Though I would like to switch it up a bit. There are more than one ways to train a person's stamina. Improving flexibility seems to exhaust people more than running most of the time."

-o-

"You look roughed up Jaune" deadpanned Gred.

"Not my fault that Pyrrha is a slave-driver. I don't know how she can be so kind and vicious at the same time when it comes to anything that involves improving me. It's almost like she's trying to mould me into her perfect man" Jaune slurred back.

The two friends paused to that and laughed. The elder laughed because that what's probably happening whether both teenagers knew or not while the younger laughed because he doubt that such a thing could ever happen to him. Plus he grew up with multiple sisters so he could see these schemes as simple as day...right?

She had been doing everything from correcting his posture, eating habits to even how he talked, looked and moved to the point that Jaune Arc before and after he met Pyrrha were distinctively different people. If this was done in only a month, he wondered what he would be like in a year or more.

Any concerns that Jaune may have had of 'manipulations' from Pyrrha started and ended with him being certain that she had no feelings for him at all besides being friends and comrades.

"Good good" said Gred, "So how's the training been? Have you become even a bit more competent since the last time I saw you?"

"Oi" Jaune shot the greyed man a glare, "I'm plenty stronger than I was before I met Pyrrha…and I don't whether me having this much change in a month is a good thing or just sad."

"Definitely sad" nodded Gred, "That just showed how much you sucked before."

Jaune shot him another glare.

"What? You did suck and no matter what I did you didn't even manage to take down a mere Boarbatusk which is by far the weakest and 'harmless' Grimm in this area of the world" stated Gred.

"Hey! You know that's only because my Aura Soldier skill is screwed up. I didn't even have the proper training to even fight on my own you know it!" retorted Jaune.

Pondering on that Gred, Jaune could see him connect the dots together before muttering, "Ah…Semblance is it? That's one thing that we could never predict or control no matter how advanced A.U.R.A system became."

"Yeah I have no idea what happened to the skill. The costs are so different from what the 'real' Aura Soldier skill and Pyrrha thinks that my semblance connects my body to the Aura Soldiers and not in a good way" he sighed.

"Connect…" Gred rubbed his chin to that, "I suppose that explains why your Aura Soldiers were so pitifully weak to be constantly one shotted."

"Huh?"

"Haven't you figured it out yet? Why Pyrrha seems to be focused on making your _body_ stronger before anything else?" Gred asked, "It's pretty clear when you look at it all and connect things together. She's a smart girl and by no means stupid."

"Buh?" Jaune was startled to that information, hell he even looked it, "Why didn't she tell me? I could've been working on my Aura Soldiers again if that's the case. And she has only been training me in stamina more than anything else!"

"Maybe that's the reason why she didn't."

"…Explain."

Gred sighed and patted Jaune on the shoulder, looking him straight in the eyes, "Jaune. You are a good kid. You have morals, the right goal but you are dead stupid and too smart and too dumb at the same time."

"…."

"What would've you done if Pyrrha outright told you that she found a solution to make your Aura Soldiers work?"

"I would…want to practise it."

"And would you focus on training yourself even when you know that the stronger you get, the seemingly stronger your Aura Soldiers get?"

"…No. I would be too stubborn and hinder Pyrrha's training for me" he admitted. Training to get more power and speed for his Aura Soldiers over stamina…yeah there was no doubt in what he would choose.

Jaune knew he had a bad habit. The habit on focusing not on the small things that could build him up but rather the larger things to try and make himself stronger as fast as possible was a fatal flaw for a hunter that not many people knew. That was one reason why his other abilities suffered while he did nothing to them compared to Aura Soldiers.

Aura Soldiers was _supposed_ to be his big break-through, a tool that gave more than he needed to work with to get stronger. It was only due to pride and sheer stubbornness that he stuck to using that skill compared to dropping it and starting over with another skill that wasn't broken and more useful.

"True true" Gred hummed, "That's why I think you're stupid. You're a _tad_ too bit focused on your faraway goals that you don't notice the small steps you need to make first."

"And your comment on how I'm 'smart'?" inquired Jaune. He was curious particularly about that part.

"You're on site planning is _frightening_ I must say. Sure most of them are either basic in some ways or outright crazy to do but they _work_ too many times for it to be luck. That and Pyrrha told me your problem with your Aura Soldiers before your semblance took a whack on it" said Gred before shaking his head.

"I've never heard of someone thinking too much or too quickly to cause the skill to react like that you know and you never had any problems when it came to the simple tasks those simulations I placed you into. Should've noticed that something was wrong…well you know what I mean" he said.

Jaune smiled.

He was actually happy at the words he got. They weren't filled with sugar-coated words designed to make him happy for a while until he realised what wasn't said. They weren't the beat down of everything he knew that made him feel like nothing. They were…just words about _him_ not good or bad.

It was one of the reasons why he became close to the receptionist instead of the busty pretty lady that most others his age went to. Though he completely admits that he was smitten by _that_ receptionist for a while before Gred whacked his head and told him he was helping with some of his problems.

Like…getting his apartment, getting him to learn the Aura Soldier skill which he wanted, getting him food when he had no money, getting him new clothes when he ruined them, getting him the armour chest plate he wore-

' _Wow…I think I may just rely on Gred a bit too much…_ ' Jaune realised. In fact, the truth is even worse than Jaune ever knew…considering his debt.

"Anyway" Gred took a moment before grinning, " _What_ kind of training does a champion fighter give you to catch up?"

Memories of the month passed flashed through Jaune's head causing him to shudder. They weren't good memories at all and he never experienced anything that could've made him push harder than ever before in his life.

"Physically or mentally?"

"Both."

Jaune could tell that his hand was twitching. It was an automatic reaction now thanks to the almost instantaneous times Pyrrha decided that her 'normal' training wasn't good enough and upped it by adding on dodging and more than often for him blocking practise to minimise damage to himself.

 _"Pyrrha! Why are you throwing rocks at my head?!"_

 _"You need to learn how to sense danger and dodge! This is for your own good! In fact considering your aura levels, we can increase the danger right now!"_

 _"No no no no! How the hell are these rocks exploding on impact?! You didn't use dust right? Right?!"_

"It's started off as running. You know for stamina training before she moved onto some dodging training at the same time" said Jaune too calmly with Gred nodding. The latter of the pair had no idea of what kind of training the former had gone through and Jaune was more than thankful for it.

Gred would probably just laugh at him.

"Ah, the good old foundation training. You have no idea how many people dismiss it so much and end up getting killed for it" reminisced Gred, "Good things Pyrrha seems to know what she's doing. Not surprising considering how strong she is!"

"Yeah" he nodded a bit numb from the memories.

It was a good thing that his body was somewhat used to the pain and damage to the point that his Endurance stat increased quite considerably along with his Stamina stat before his partner started adding on the more painful and dangerous projectiles to their game of 'dodge the exploding item'.

He still has no idea how Pyrrha managed to not cause a commotion with how much he was screaming.

"Besides that, we haven't actually touched on anything else" said Jaune, "I think she was trying to improve my body as much as possible…well my stamina in particular and my endurance as a side effect for the… _harder"_ he shuddered, "Training that she wants to do in the future."

"Conditioning training then" Gred nodded.

"Huh?" Jaune just looked confused more than anything else.

"You know…training that is focused on building up the body for harder training?" the receptionist prompted causing Jaune to scowl and say, "I know what conditioning training is!"

"You looked confused."

"I was thinking!"

"Still looked confused" Gred didn't budge a bit on that statement causing Jaune to just give up on that and move to another topic. Something that wasn't associated with training or Pyrrha at all.

"Should I start recounting all the times you somehow managed to screw up with that particular look on your face?"

-Or maybe just _leave_ because Gred seemed more vindicated towards him for some reason.

"Seeya Gred."

"Good luck Jaune" Gred laughed as if he wasn't going to pin him to the ground before making me squirm and want to faint via sheer embarrassment, "Don't get all distracted by the pretty lady."

Jaune deadpanned at his first (?) friend to that. If he was distracted then he wouldn't have survived the second week of the training when Pyrrha really started to get more serious in making sure he knew how to sense danger in one form or another and how to dodge in time.

Jaune silently prayed that Pyrrha didn't start 'training' in his daily life as well. He _needed_ the few hours of peaceful sleep.

-o-

"Pyrrha, how many skills do you have?" he asked.

It was one topic that he didn't dare branch out so early. For Hunters, besides their stats, the most personal thing you could ask for is an outline of what skills they have. Not only does it literally give someone else a manual of what you can do, unless you trust the other person, it is likely that sooner or later other people will know of your capabilities as well.

That said, the Guild made it so that general fighting against each other were banned unless in established locations where they draw customers and money from them. It's one of the reasons why the Guild allows their contractors (aka Hunters and many others) to have a certain amount of debt.

Apparently being reported to have access to the Aura Soldier skill and mastering it had given him a lot of leniency because of that.

"Why do you ask?"

He shrugged, "More curious than anything else" before thinking of a new more believable excuse, "Oh and I want to somewhat know your capability when we actually do some missions together that aren't designed for training for me."

"Jaune you know that-"

"Yeah I know. Body weak, Grimm strong."

Pyrrha gave him a particular look that made him want to crawl under a table and shiver in fear but he ignored it. This was probably more important than making sure he didn't piss off his only source of improvement and friend his age.

"Gred told me about the effects that my semblance probably has towards my Aura Soldier skill."

"Oh."

Silence was maintained for 3 seconds before Jaune continued, "And part of me was a bit miffed that you didn't tell me about it but most of me really didn't care as long as I had you with me."

Stopping for a moment to consider why Pyrrha seemed a bit red, he ignored it and yet again continued, "I'm just wondering…on _when_ you will allow me to actually fight something. Or at least train me in a skill that lets me defend myself at least."

"Is this why you're asking me about my skills?"

"Pretty much. I'm wondering if you could teach me one that may let me survive a bit better out there" he laughed but internally he was kicking himself for asking something so stupid.

However still, Pyrrha seemed to ponder on his request but in the end said, "No. Conditioning your body right now is much more important. You are more likely to survive right now if you improve your body rather than to gain a skill and try to use it."

Jaune sighed, "It was worth a shot."

"If it answers some questions, I _do_ know the skill that you'll be learning."

Jaune brightened up considerably to that.

"It's one of the basic ones-"

And he immediately started looking downcasted.

"-But one of the important and crucial skills to have. You usually are allowed to gain it when you reach D rank but I can teach you earlier if you do well enough."

He perked up to that.

"Really?" he asked.

The red-head nodded, "Yes. In particular, the skill is quite potent combined with your aura capacity. The skill itself is called Aura Charge which is the ability to imbue items whether it'll be weapons, armours and even other miscellaneous items with aura causing them to become much stronger to the point that even a break stick with enough aura could temporary match up to an actual sword."

Jaune considered what that actually meant and what uses it gave him. For one, it would make any weapons he used so much stronger and any armour he wears whether cloth, leather or metal to be harder than ever at the same time. That alone made it worth to invest into.

"Wow…"

He was impressed.

"Is that one of the skills you have?" he asked.

She nodded, "Yes. Besides that I have one that enhances my speed in general, another that enhances my control over aura and one that reduces friction on my armour whether from air resistance itself or even blows if I block a certain way totalling to 4 active skills in total for me."

"Active skills?" he raised an eyebrow.

"They are skills that require an active use of aura to use. Usually they are much stronger than passive skills, which are effects that don't require aura to use or at least, actively use aura to use which are much weaker individually but can be stacked with other passive skills and even active skills to gain a larger effect" she explained.

"Okay but only 4? I expected you to have more" he said.

She coughed in response, "I may have…twice amount of passive skills like one that improves my eyesight via aura and so on. Those ones don't really do much besides one thing at a time like that one that allows me to calculate the trajectory of any projectiles I can fire, quite useless for most others but with my semblance…"

"Oh…" he muttered, "You think I should start off with one of those passive skills if they help me in small ways?"

"I wouldn't suggest it" she replied, "Sometimes you have people that can pick up many passive skills as they can but can't do much with active skills and other times the opposite or in between. I'm in the middle of that range where it doesn't take too much work to gain a skill but it takes a lot of time to master them."

"Where do you think I lie in all of this?" Jaune asked though that answer should be unknown to anyone until he tries so. He _did_ takes 2 years to master Aura Soldiers but he didn't know where that makes him lie compared to everyone else.

"At least someone who can master active skills at a good pace" she shrugged, "I have no idea how well or how quick you can master passive skills like I did but Aura Soldier is an active skill that takes much _much_ longer than 2 years to master most of the time."

"But…I did nothing but train with it for 2 years which makes it a bit of a problem to tell."

"True but most of the time, it's a matter of how much time you can spare and how much effort you put into a skill to master it that allows you to master a skill" she said, "Talent usually only speed it up a bit, especially in the beginning use of said skills."

"Huh" he considered that, "Does that mean if there's a talented enough person, they might be able to match you when they start off?"

Pyrrha snorted to that.

"Jaune, C rank means you need to at least 100 points in 3 stats. I won't be taken out so easily even if I barely classifies as one stat wise especially since most of my other stats aren't that far behind being C rank as well."

"…."

Jaune could only _stare_ at Pyrrha at that moment. The difference between their highest stats was over 5 times! Sure the difference in gain in training means he is catching up faster than she can currently grow but…wow.

"Please don't tell me all the other C rankers are like you" he pled.

Letting out a grumble Pyrrha muttered something under her breath but still said, "Most C rankers are only good in 3 stats with the rest lagging really badly behind by a rank or more. That and stats aren't _everything_ to making rank. If you build up enough achievements, skills whether tactical or otherwise you get promoted either way."

"So…those kind of Hunters are just that _good_ even without the stats?" he wondered.

"That's correct, and this applies to most Hunters though more towards Huntresses. But the only exceptions are the S rank Hunters which you 'only' need to achieve 1000 points in a single stat no matter which. Quantity itself makes them a S rank threat in most cases" she explained.

"Is that so…" Jaune wondered if he could make it to S rank if he somehow managed to increase his Aura stat enough.

Nah that would probably never happen. Better to be a decent Hunter in his opinion, which is a viable goal at least.

"So" he said suddenly, "What's our training today? I mean you pretty much consume the mornings with stamina training, the afternoons with stamina training and evenings with stamina training…"

"I _did_ say that stamina is the most important stat to have. The more you have the better and the more…intense training we can do later" she smiled.

Jaune had a feeling to run away now before anything else.

"Right but…shouldn't I focused a bit of time on my other stats? I mean if my semblance is causing my Aura Soldiers to be the same as me physically…"

"That's actually incorrect" she stated.

"What do you mean?" he frowned.

"Really only your Strength, Speed and Endurance stat affects your Aura Soldiers if you think about it" she said, "Dexterity depends on _you_ controlling them well enough, what use are Perception and Reaction Speed to Aura Soldiers when those depend on _you_ personally?"

He asked once again, "Then why are training me in those? Those seem useful as well."

"All stats are useful in one way or another. But consider this Jaune, what is your main skill?"

Jaune paused before stating, "Aura Soldiers."

"And more than anything else, what is causing you the most problems with them besides the whole 'not moving' properly incident?"

"Them getting one hit killed."

"And what makes them stronger to take more hits?"

"Endurance?" he was surprised and looked the part as well, "You mean the stat that's all about taking a…hit. Oh. That actually makes sense."

"Yes" she replied in return, "Though Strength actually plays a good part of it as well. The stronger you are, the less damage you take by diverting the force back to the enemy, thus cancelling some force from it."

"…."

"Right, we still need to get you up to speed on _everything_ you need to know mentally as a Hunter. Wait here and I'll get the books for you to study" she said.

Jaune _really_ wanted to run away now.

-o-

Inside his admittedly small apartment that was designed for single people, Jaune decided it was time for him to adjust and start to actively use his lone and mastered skill once more.

"Set appearance configuration knight-1 complete" Jaune mumbled which look at the first of his new Aura Soldier.

 **[Appearance Configuration saved to Knight]**

Under the suggestion of Pyrrha who mentioned that it was easier to control his Aura Soldiers if they were similar enough to him, Jaune had literally scrapped all of his creations – which weren't that good in hindsight – and started all over again which wasn't that much trouble.

Letting out a sigh, Jaune rubbed the sweat off his forehead while looking at Knight-1. It was the first of his new Aura Soldiers series and in a way it also represented his new started in all of this. It wasn't overly flashy like some of his previous work nor was it too complicated in design at all.

It was just what he would've looked like if his gear was more 'knight-like'. A flat helmet covered the head, the torso was equipped with a half-plat like him and the arms and legs were equipped with metal protectors. Furthermore, a large flat shield was on its left arm while a simple straight sword was on its right.

If this Aura Soldier wasn't slightly transparent and white thanks to the effects of Aura being used to create it, Jaune could say that this being in front of him was similar enough to be another one of his siblings…if they were male that is.

But most of all, he had created this design of his Aura Soldier to 'Knight' and not 'Knight-1' which was a recommendation of Pyrrha. There were countless names to place each pre-set and it was difficult to call out multiple Aura Soldiers of the same type of the number and type of Aura Soldiers were the same and conflicted with each other.

Naturally Jaune was embarrassed to that as well.

"Right that's one down" he said to himself.

While thanks to mastering the skill itself, Jaune choice not to dive into the highly complicated types of Aura Soldiers he could possibly create from the many types of gunners to the also many types of dust types but instead choice to create a simple and yet effect Aura Soldier that served one purpose and only one alone.

To protect Jaune Arc from danger and to eliminate said danger with force.

That and of course he really didn't know how to _shoot_ with his Gunner Aura Soldiers per say…he kind of never tested it out because his aiming speed was too…'slow' for him to even consider that.

Sure Jaune could've made it so that it was more akin to a slaughtering Grimm killing machine but he doubt that it could ever compare to Pyrrha. And more than that, he didn't even _know_ that Aura Soldiers had pre-set actions to commands that were automated before Pyrrha told him of the option settings of the skill.

In hindsight _that_ was probably another reason why he sucked in using said skill in the past.

To summarise what he did before, Jaune was trying to control a highly _complicated_ machine that needed precise input to move properly that had the option to automatically move a certain way on its own _manually_ with his _thoughts_. Fate might have allowed him to be highly skilled in said manual control somewhat thanks to two years of unintentional training in that area but it wasn't so kind to let him succeed with it.

Switch from manual to automatic in certain actions – one of which were to allow for the most efficient movements per action – and Jaune was surprisingly – to himself – proficient in using Aura Soldiers despite all the worry that Pyrrha had.

Obviously she didn't know that he was using manual drive the entire time as well and thought he just…sucked that much where others had a much easier time than him. Not that he blamed her of course, _he_ didn't know before now as well.

That and he also had to thank her again for allowing him to see her movements in battle which allowed him to once more, be more skilful in making the Aura Soldiers dodge and attack certain ways. With this change, he estimated that he could easily take down one of those damn Boarbatusks that had been plaguing his life since… _forever_.

And all of this could never have happened if Pyrrha didn't seek him out.

"Thank god for that."

Once more, Jaune sent a prayer to whatever entity that allowed Pyrrha to find and help him and then moved his thoughts on how to improve himself further. As a Hunstman and one born from a family of Hunters, Jaune had been growing up listening to all the things that made a good Hunter.

And one of those little facts was that Hunters _needed_ to improve themselves whether through training, strategies or even equipment to better protect everyone else on Remnant. Considering Jaune's…skill level in the past two years along with his money issues that still were an issue, he was quite forced to only improve himself strategy wise and that was limited as well.

Aura Soldier was the perfect solution for his problems.

…Then it became a problem on a whole new level. Jaune wasn't the strongest, fastest or even toughest person. Training alone became a habit to just maintain his current physical status because he thought that he could use Aura Soldiers for everything else. That was before Pyrrha turned up.

 _She_ was so much stronger, faster and tougher than him that he was forced to improve himself. Already according to A.U.R.A, his physical abilities improve leaps and bounds in a single month that he was almost double as strong as before. Besides that, Jaune had hopes that with this training and how his semblance seemed to screw with his Aura Soldiers, his skill could match up and at least take a few hits now.

-Especially when he could efficiently block attacks with them.

"Jaune, are you there?" asked Pyrrha after knocking on the door.

Looking at himself and feeling that he wasn't inadequately dressed, Jaune replied, "Yeah. I'm dressed and not indecent!"

Hearing a giggle on the other side of the door, Jaune smiled as the red-headed entered his room. Still, he was a bit self-conscious on how messy his room was. If his mum or sisters found out he invited a girl into his room in a state like this…

Well Pyrrha's training would be considered easy _when_ – and Jaune is certain they will find out sooner or later – they do.

"Hey Pyrrha" he said casually, "What do you need me today?"

Said person smiled before answering, "What about a mission. One that _you_ will complete on your own."

She took a look of the Aura Soldier next to him and commented, "And it looks like you're prepared for it as well. Let's see if a month of training managed to get you out of your 2 years funk."

"Great" he smiled, "Let me just get some things packed up."

He wondered if he had any other spare flashbangs around. Although he trusted Pyrrha with his life at this point, nothing less than that, it would be good to prepare for anything and everything at the same time.

That was really the only reason he managed to live after all this time.

-o-

 **[Mission ID: 00246654 (Subjugation of Boarbatusk) has been accepted]**

Seeing that message, Jaune and Pyrrha quickly waved goodbye to Gred who gave him his best wishes before they left for the gates where all town traffic came and went through. The town that could barely (if you tried) fit as a town could be split in two directions.

East where all the residential houses were and West where all the industrial buildings and where everyone went to for work or otherwise went to. The layout was not at all complicated and it was really only natural for security to move to the west side of town when everyone was awake and to the east when everyone was asleep.

That and the town itself wasn't too large so everyone pretty much knew everyone in some form or another.

"Oh it's Jaune" said one of the gatekeepers. He was a young men just a few years older than him.

"Hey there" he waved.

The second gatekeeper whom Jaune didn't have a name to was an older man, turned and waved friendlily to him as well, "Good luck out there. Hopefully you finally found a solution to your problem. It was just _pitiful_ to see you fail for 2 years in a row."

Sending a mock glare to the gatekeepers Jaune rolled his eyes, "I did. And hopefully I can finally start to repay the stupidly massive amount of debt I built up these 2 years as well."

The first gatekeeper sent a whine out at the reminder, "Yeah…don't remind me of debts. I still have a few years to pay off the loan I got and I'm not hunter. Too much risk there and too old to start training for it."

"Plus it's really expensive to try. You got lucky there when you got that fancy skill of yours with your large aura. No expense needed when one of them kicks the dust repeatedly" the second gatekeeper nodded sagely.

"Are you kidding?" Jaune raised an eyebrow, "Do you know how much those flashbangs cost to allow me to escape?"

"Yeah and that's why I told you, you were lucky. Broken equipment is way worse. Any decent weapon that can take down Grimm are all those expensive Hunter weapons" said the second.

"That and you need aura to use them properly" added the first.

"True" he agreed.

All three men turned and looked at the patiently waiting Pyrrha who noticed their stares and waved gently towards the trio. The first gatekeeper sent a withering glare towards Jaune while the second simply grinned and smacked his back.

"I hate you so much right now."

"You're a lucky man Jaune."

"Huh?" Jaune sent a confused look to the two which only caused the first gatekeeper to glare even harder and the second to let out a bellowing laugh.

Not wanting to be caught up in whatever is happening, Jaune quickly said his goodbyes to them and ran to catch up to where Pyrrha was who only had a bemused look on her face.

"What?" he asked.

"Nothing" she turned and started walking, "Nothing at all."

The only though that came up to Jaune at that moment was that girls were strange. And he experienced a lot of strange things in his life thanks to the ratio of males to females in his family. There was a lot of father-son bonding on certain days of the month as well.

-o-

' _Okay, you can do this. You've been training for a whole month for this'_ Jaune thought to himself.

He looked over to his partner who only gave him a reassured smile. There were so many questions he wanted to ask. Things like if he should attack without the use of his Aura Soldiers or not, things like how he should attack and whether he should use a pre-emptive strike or lure it into a trap.

There were countless things that could go right and wrong in his mind. Jaune wasn't entirely sure that this was the right thing to do even now. He didn't want to disappoint and didn't want to take that chance to disappoint. But in the end, Jaune took a minute to calm himself and resolve himself.

He had gotten used to Pyrrha leading him.

…But he was her leader.

Jaune's mind raced through theories and conclusions. What would happen if he did this right, what would happen if he failed and what would happen if he flat out refused to do so and every single time it seemed to always come to the result of Pyrrha being the priority rather than his pride now.

If he was going to lead her, then the only thing he could do was act.

"Deploy activate" he called out as the skill activated.

 **[Aura Soldier has activated]**

 **[Please select pre-set to be deployed]**

 **[Please select number of Aura Soldiers to be deployed]**

"Set Knight-1."

The moment he said those words, he could feel almost a third of his aura stripped from him without any means to decrease the costs. However he could feel that he could make this _lone_ Aura Soldier stronger if only if he poured some more aura into it. And he did.

His aura dropped further from 70% to 50% as the first option of his Aura Soldier appeared. A single Aura Solider that is double strength compared to himself at the cost of 50% of his total aura. In a way, it was much better to do so compared to spending 30% of his aura one that was equal to him or 15% on one that was half as strong as him.

Light and Aura displaced themselves as Knight-1 appeared in front of him, ready to guard him from anything, and just in time as well since the use of aura seemed to attach the attention of the Boarbatusk that Pyrrha managed to track down and lead him towards.

"Okay, start off simple and easy" he muttered to himself seeing the red eyes fixate on him or his Aura Soldier.

As the Grimm let out a roar, part of Jaune wanted to panic 'knowing' that his creation would break on a single hit. However a much stronger part of him that was beaten down and refined into something better for a month, simply and calmly barked out one order.

"Guard!"

The automated internal system that Aura Soldiers worked on flared up alive for the first time in combat and Jaune immediately knew that _this_ was the system that allowed Aura Soldiers to experience battle and grow from them. It was no wonder that his Aura Soldiers 2 years past never grown stronger.

The Boarbutuk impacted the shield of Knight-1 which bent down slightly to get a better grip onto the ground. The sound itself was of the shield _slightly_ breaking and Jaune already cheered mentally that this was better than anything that happened before. However he was still in battle and it would be unprofessional to do so in front of Pyrrha.

"Strike from above!" he ordered and Knight-1 did just that. Its right arm swung down from above and smashed the aura created weapon onto the top of the Boarbatusk which barked out a scream of pain indicating that it was still alive.

Some fear spilled from Jaune from that but this was still in his calculations. That and the fact remains that this was also the _first_ time that he had actually managed to injure one of the Grimm…ever.

Feeling that it was better to end this now than later, Jaune ordered again, "Strike again!" but the Boarbatusk dodged to the side before trying to ram Knight-1 as his Aura Soldier blocked the attack for a second time.

' _At this rate I will probably win but it'll damage Knight-1 a lot to do so'_ thought Jaune before speaking again, "Supress the Boarbatusk."

Knight-1 rammed its shield out stunning the Grimm for a moment before gripping the tusk of the creature as Jaune called out, "Throw it back and charge to finish it off!"

The Aura Soldier responded to his call and immediately the Boarbatusk was thrown away landing on its side to the surprising amount of force Knight-1 had before he watched as the knight figure, a bit clumsily, rammed its sword into the Grimm killing it once and for all.

The Boarbatusk as a bonus didn't even let out a death scream as its body started to disappear into black muck and at the same time causing Jaune to get out of his 'battle-mind' allowing sweat to rapidly appear all over his body.

 **[Total Slain Boarbatusk: 1]**

"Damn that was…" he mumbled before collapsing on the ground while panting. Now that he thought about it, he wasn't really breathing that much during the battle, most of it was directed towards _thinking_ more and more and yet at the same time, everything went right.

"Yeaaaaaaaah!"

Jaune smiled. For once, things seemed to be going his way.

"That was impressive" said Pyrrha as he turned to look up at her…and then proceeded to _blush_ because of the 'view' and the choice of clothing she had on.

He felt like a pervert and immediately corrected that to hope she didn't find out of his accidental peaking before quickly saying while grinning, "Yeah, my first Grimm kill. And it only took me two years."

"And an intense month worth of training" she added jokingly.

"Yeah that too" he nodded though he had a feeling that she was joking in that she thought her training as not intense…which would mean bad things to him later on. But he didn't care.

 _Finally_. He had managed to complete a mission!

"And I managed to find out how to switch on that 'growth' system that Aura Soldier has as well" he let out another cheer.

"Wait what?"

"I said I managed to switch on that 'growth' system that Aura Soldier has" he repeated, frowning because Pyrrha not knowing something like that and being shocked as a bad sign.

"Jaune…" she said, "Please explain what you just said to me. I'm confused why such a thing wasn't apparent to you before you met me."

Jaune thought about what Pyrrha wanted and then understood.

With a nod he started explaining, "You know how besides the whole things with Aura Soldier, there's this internal system for 'growth' as in the more you battle with them, the more they adapt and so on?"

Seeing Pyrrha seemed to know this he continued, "Basically earlier today, I found out there are _two_ settings for Aura Soldiers. Manual which is what I was stuck on which forced me to do everything from move the limbs and allocate the aura distribution and _automatic_ which basically does all of that on its own."

Shrugging he told her of his theory, "I think my semblance with the connection thing with my skill caused it to go from automatic settings which is basically the learning thing to manual where it was I that controlled everything and therefore my Aura Soldiers didn't learn anything on its own."

Though at the same time, Jaune wondered if Dexterity, Perception and Reaction Speed actually affected his Aura Soldiers now compared to before. He needed to test that out later even though he would train to increases those parts of his stats either way.

"So…you're telling me that every single Aura Soldier user has access to AI" she deadpanned in a way I never expected.

"Umm…okay? What does that matter?" he asked.

She waved it off saying, "Nothing too bad. I just understand _why_ Aura Soldier costs so much aura to use when there are countless other skills out there that makes aura constructs that costs only a fraction as much. The AI part must up the cost by quite a bit."

Thinking it over Jaune agreed, "Yeah it does."

….

….

"So…let's evaluate what you did and go over what you could've done better."

"Okay."

"First of all, why did you only create on Aura Soldier and not multiple of them?" she asked first.

That was an easy one, "I felt…unconfident due to experience I wanted to milk as much of my training being transferred into my Aura Soldier as possible Choosing the option to take half my aura capacity to create one that is twice as strong as I am is only the most logical thing to do when uncertain if I could take one head-on."

Looking at the place where the Boarbatusk died he added, "And with the results I got, I'm more sure that with the regular strength Aura Soldiers, I would've lost if I only used one of them instead of several."

"So you were testing the capabilities of one instead of several?"

"Yeah."

"Right" she accepted, "Next question. Why didn't you create one or two more of the weaker Aura Soldiers as back-up despite this? If you wanted to test how well a single Aura Soldier worked, there is a point when you could've-should've thought of your own safety first. Manu Hunters died because of underestimating the Grimm and believing they were safe until their last moments" she asked next.

He…hadn't actually thought of that.

With a small self-depriving laugh he shook his head, "That actually didn't pop in my head at all think I was thinking that if I made another Aura Soldier it would end up draining the rest of my aura in full because I was thinking of using twice strong Aura Soldiers."

Turning to her, he asked, "Actually, are there equipment that can, say increase aura levels?"

"That…perhaps but they're not accessible for us" mused Pyrrha before clicking her tongue, "I _have_ heard of special, rare and expensive equipment that are rumoured to increase aura capacity but I have no idea on whether they may only add to more aura your skill uses or allows you some leftovers and whether it would be a waste of time to pursuit them in the end."

"Eh. Nevermind that then" he replied before having an idea, "What about a consumable that allows me to recover my aura?"

"That actually doesn't exist."

"Really I would've thought such a thing would be essential to have."

"Oh make no mistake Jaune, the technology to _transfer_ aura does exist and people are trying to research on ways to _store_ aura to some success but what you are thinking of will probably take _years_ if not _decades_ of research to be properly tested, manufactured and shipped out to be sold" she explained, "So no aura recovery consumable."

"Though a lot of hunters would like such a thing to exist I suspect."

"Yes" she nodded, "Many do, especially since more aura in the body tends to mean more self-recovery in itself which is a huge benefit no matter how strong you become."

"So more aura is good. Got it" Jaune nodded as if that explained everything, "Are there any other points I need to think on or fix? I didn't _actually_ battle but just allowed my Aura Soldier to do so; is that going to be fine in the future? I mean, with larger and more powerful Grimm out there, it's likely I will need to fight personally one day."

In just the area of Vale itself, the land was populated with mostly beast-type Grimm that take the forms of animals and in particular Beowolves being the most common even compared to all other types of Grimm. Boarbatusks while being the weakest of Grimm when young; weren't actually the most common.

It was just that Boarbatusks were more common in _this_ area of Vale compared to Beowolves that hide out deeper in the forest. That and people tend to ignore Boarbatusks more than Beowolves thanks to the sheer difference in size in itself along with how Boarbatusks are more commonly armoured up as well without become an Alpha Grimm.

"It's likely you will one day need to learn how to protect yourself of course" said Pyrrha, "However against Minor Grimm, it's unlikely you will need to with your use of Aura Soldiers and as well as me protecting you."

"But will you train me to protect myself as well?" he pressed on.

Pyrrha thought on that for a moment before saying, "Of course. If you get stronger so do your Aura Soldiers it seems, though I know not the effects of increased sword skills on their performance however. But at the same time, knowing how to fight is always a good thing for a Hunter."

He sighed in relief to that. That was another thing that he was worrying most of the time. His lack of… _personal_ skill made it harder for him to actually get into a team in the past, though that was mainly thanks to him focusing too much on Aura Soldier out of sheer stubbornness.

Jaune Arc unlike most of his family did not wield a weapon, and that was not out of choice but rather because he didn't know how to.

"Yeah, we can start when we get back…are we continuing this mission? I mean, _technically_ the mission was complete when I killed that Boarbatusk" said Jaune not wanting Pyrrha to question his motives now.

In both ways he wanted to continue and stop for the same and opposite reasons. He wanted to fight more because he now could and he wanted to stop fighting because he just achieved one of his long time minor goals.

And he wanted to do more; at least to not disappoint Pyrrha by backing out. How would it look to others to know that he _just_ finally killed his first Grimm after two years of failures? How would it seem that he finally managed something so simple for others with the help of someone so much stronger?

His reputation was mud at this point, and he didn't want to drag Pyrrha in with him. And that only caused him to want to do one thing right now. He needed to prove himself more than anything else that he could fight, that he could stand among others as a Hunter and nothing more and nothing less than that.

"Do you wish to continue Jaune?" Pyrrha seemed questioned, worry on her face as she asked, "Most Hunters stop when they can't handle fighting more for good reason. Any lack of concentration in a fight may end up killing you. Do you really want to continue?"

"Yeah sure. Of course I want to keep on going" he quickly replied trying to keep the uncertainty out of his voice. He really didn't know what he was doing, but he was sure that it would work out fine in the end.

….

….

As it turned out, Aura Soldiers actually last a while. In fact, Jaune expected the Aura Soldier of Knight-1 he had summoned to disappear almost immediately when the battle ended and was about to dismiss it just before Pyrrha stopped him.

"Jaune… _that_ is literally half of your Aura and if you dismiss it, then you will only get half of that Aura amount back" she said cautiously.

"Oh."

He hadn't thought of that. Most of the time he was more worried about being killed by any Grimm than to worry about how much Aura he had left to use for future battles. In fact, there were a lot of things he didn't know about continued battles because this was the first time he was experiencing them.

"Pyrrha, how much Aura do we regenerate?" I asked.

"Around…10% per hour I believe" she answered.

Pondering on that Jaune also asked, "And how long do my Aura Soldiers last? I never actually experimented on that before."

It never really came up before at all. There was just…no point in learning how long he could make one last when the more important thing to learn was his capabilities and how well he could use them no matter how short they seem to last in battle.

"Each one should last around an hour I suspect…unless your semblance once more did something to shorten or lengthen this time" she said with a grimaced at the mention of his semblance.

He sighed knowing the thoughts that ran through her head. His semblance did really just make things so much more complicated and he didn't even know what it was! Sure, he knew it affected his Aura Soldiers (while screwing him over) but he had no idea how it could affect him further with anything else he might use in the future.

"Anyway" Jaune turned looking around, "Let's see if we can find another Boarbatusk for me to fight before this guy expires."

-o-

"Knight-1 Block the attack! Knight-2 flank attack!" Jaune commanded hastily.

The Boarbatusk charged head on as expected towards the 'greater' threat that was Knight-1 mainly due to it being made of half his aura reserves while Knight-2 was only made with 15% of his aura reserves in comparison. Knight-3 on the other hand, made with the same amount as Aura as Knight-2 was on standby next to him just in case of emergency.

" _Goooooaarrrr!"_

' _Now!_ ' thought Jaune clenching his teeth while controlling Knight-1 more than the other two Aura Soldiers.

BANG!

Knight-1's aura constructed body slid back a few centimetres due to the impact but was holding strong as Knight-2 moved to the right and slashed to the side of the Boarbatusk as an opening came up.

"Take this!"

Aura constructed blade ripped through the Grimm flesh of the Boarbatusk causing it to strangely scream in pain. Jaune remembered in one lesson that Grimm caused these sounds to make Hunters let down their guards. Grimm had no aura and literally no senses of pain thanks to how their bodies are made, any that they show are just an act.

(Whether or not Grimm actually felt pain or not didn't matter as the lesson was mainly about not under-estimating Grimm no matter what)

Knight-2 on his orders held no hesitation as it continued attacking the Grimm as Knight-1 with its superior strength, speed and toughness tanked most of the hits but not without inflicting a couple on its own.

The battle itself was not complicated with beings flashing around the battlefield, but rather focused on the three beings in close combat. Aura constructed shields blocked attacks and the same aura constructed swords ripped into the lone Grimm as Jaune made sure to gang up on it as much as possible.

-And as a result, not even a minute into the battle, the Boarbatusk Grimm died and a certain message appeared to him via his A.U.R.A system once more.

 **[Total Slain Boarbatusk: 5]**

Letting out a breath of air, Jaune calmed himself and wondered how much stranger this day would become for him. Before, he was training for a whole month with Pyrrha and during that time, she taught him a lot about Grimm using live demonstrations. Now, he was fighting them on his own without her helping him at all!

"Good job Jaune. You're getting faster in killing them" he heard Pyrrha say.

Letting a smile out he replied, "Only because you're watching over me. I couldn't go this far if not for your presence here to calm me and let me know that everything will be all right I would've been a wreck Pyrrha."

"I didn't have to save you this entire time Jaune Give yourself some more credit."

"True but who trained me for a month and helped me out of my slump. Without you, I would've had to retire as a Hunter with the _worst_ mission completion/failure ratio ever and I have no idea how the guild would've reacted to that" he let out a shiver.

He remembered Gred's words on how the guild didn't forgive debts that well and the only reason he was allowed to continue was because of a good possibility of him eventually completing missions and eventually paying back the guild from all the failure fees he had accumulated over the 2 years.

Jaune sure didn't want to know what they would do to him if he proved incompetent in the end.

"So…with 5 Boarbatusks killed, how much Lien will I make off of this mission now" Jaune asked. He was a bit curious since he owed…183 000 Lien in total which was enough to feed a family for a good few years.

Pyrrha shrugged and replied, "You get around 500 Lien per kill in this case so 2500 Lien in total for now. You need to take on stronger Grimm later on in order to pay off your debt quickly. Different types of Grimm and their age give off different amounts."

"Really?"

"Yeah" she nodded, "There are five ranks of Grimm according to age. Minor, Major, Alpha, Ancient and Legendary. With each age rank, the threat rating of each Grimm increases by a rank in turn except for Legendary which are exclusive to S rank threats."

"So…if Boarbatusk Minors are all F rank threats than Boarbatusk Majors are E rank, Alphas are D rank and Ancient Boarbatusks are C rank threats at best?" Jaune asked.

Pyrrha nodded confirming that, "Boarbatusks are among the weakest and least threatening of Grimm…at least to Hunters. Normal civilians can easily be killed by them as well. And the 'Minor' label is only formality in the most legal sense. There are no 'Minor' Grimm in reality."

"Ah."

"In the area of Vale, Beowolves are the next 'weakest' of the lot and appear as were-wolves from those old stories more than actual wolves. They mostly walk on two legs but can go on all fours and are around human size and only go up in size. These start off as E rank threats." Pyrrha started explaining.

"After that are the Ursa which are the Bear-like Grimm which are the size of the largest bears and only go up from there. Ursai begin as D rank threats as a result. Similarly Nevermores which are bird-like Grimm also start off as D rank threats mainly due to their flight capacity and ranged attacks" she continued, "Finally there are Kind Taijitu which are two snakes, one white and another black, joined together as one and Death Stalkers which are scorpion-like Grimm that both start off at C rank threats at minimum and only get stronger with time."

"Wait" Jaune raised his hand, "If the threat ranking is right, doesn't that mean Alpha and especially Ancient Grimm are really _really_ powerful? I mean, Ancient Death Stalkers are S rank threats if what you're telling me is right."

"Ah. Actually that's not true…" Pyrrha blushed a bit, "Like the Legendary title only applies to true S rank threats, any title below that, even Ancient can only go up to the upper limits of A rank threats."

"That's…kind of strange" he admitted.

"Not that strange when you think of what an A rank threat actually is. You need a _team_ of A rank Hunters to deal with one of them. That and Ancient Grimm are incredibly more dangerous than their brethren thanks to what time allowed them to become."

"You mean, stronger, faster or have more armour?"

"No. They become intelligent" she declared and waited for that to sink in for Jaune.

Grimm…are not that smart when you think about it. The most common kinds of Grimm out there don't do much besides blindly attack head-on, example of his most recent and first hunt of how the Boarbatusks literally blindly slammed into Knight-1 in particular. The only reason why his current strategy worked is because of the belief that it would work.

What would happen if the Boarbatusk ignored his Aura Soldiers and went to strike him and _only_ him immediately? Sure he could react in time now but in the future, but what of when he would be conditioned to believe that Grimm will always act in certain ways? Could he react in time when he didn't expect an attack?

Jaune…wasn't sure of whether he would make that mistake or not.

-o-

"Shit. Shit. _Shhhhhit_ " Jaune cursed out as he dodged another swipe from the Ursa _MAJOR_ that was intent on playing with him before trying to crush him. Knight-2 and Knight-3 were instantly killed trying to block the Grimm and he grimaced at how quickly they died though he was currently at 35% aura capacity.

Pyrrha on the other hand wasn't having much of a better time with a _dozen_ Ursai on her tail as well. The whole keeping him alive thing was a bit difficult for the red-head when she was being forced to defend her own life using multiple skills she had to acrobatically dodge any attacks while counter-attacking constantly to keep them back.

"I'll cover you. Escape now Jaune!" Pyrrha barked out before switching her weapon into its rifle form and sniping the Ursa Major for reasons he didn't know.

Jaune promptly ordered Knight-1 to smash itself into an Ursa that was sneaking up behind him before deploying another two Aura Soldiers that were promptly mentally named Knight-2 and Knight-3 in his head before ordering them to protect him as much as possible.

"Shit!"

Cursing several times more in a row before rolling away as many times possible, Jaune watched as Knight-1 followed his mental order and managed to stab an Ursa to death with the aid of Knight-2 and Knight-3.

 **[Total Slain Ursa: 1]**

He grunted seeing A.U.R.A alert him to that fact just as Pyrrha managed to do something with her shield being rebounded several times against several Ursai' heads promptly decapitating them at the same time. Now there was only eight Ursa aiding the Ursa Major that they had to deal with.

"Jaune! Why haven't you escape yet?!" Pyrrha screamed once more.

Promptly ordering his Aura Soldiers to stand guard and block and spread out the impact of an Ursa before together pushing said Grimm back with sheer force and combination attacks, Jaune shouted back, "Do you think I will really abandon you?!" before using his surprisingly honed evasion skills to barely prevent his chest from being caved in.

At the same time, he could see the black tinted aura burst forward from Pyrrha's body as she rushed and slammed her weapon into the Ursa that just attacked him, quickly dispatching it with ease.

"Have you forgotten what I just told you before? Ursai are D rank threats that you are not ready to take on yet, let alone an Ursa _MAJOR_ which is a C rank threat that even I have to be cautious with" she said scanning quickly with her eyes of enemies.

As expected, even to Jaune's own inexperienced eyes, the Ursai were being directed by the Ursa Major which was much more intelligent than you would expect. It didn't charge straight in which was a thing and only made it much more dangerous if it knew timing. Such things killed better Hunters can him and will kill more in the future.

"I'm still not letting you do this alone. We're a team remember" Jaune rebuked before focusing of what remains of his Aura reserves of 5%. While the amount was extremely small, it _could_ save his life from an indirect blow that might have otherwise blown his body apart.

-That and he still had 3 Aura Soldiers which could potentially aid Pyrrha in the fight as well. He was _not_ letting her do this all alone and get killed because he was too much of a coward to help her in her time of need.

Hands twitching, Jaune recounted what forces they had on their side besides him. Pyrrha was a C rank Huntress that could match the Ursa Major of the same rank. Knight-1 was double his strength which meant it was around E rank in ability while Knight-2 and Knight-3 were clearly F rank in ability which would explain why he could see their bodies crack in certain places.

And on the other side were 7 Ursai, all of which were D rank threats and a Ursa Major which was a C rank threat.

' _Right, we are completely outnumbered_ ' thought Jaune, ' _What can we do…at best I can only take on one Ursa at a time and Pyrrha will be needed to kill the Ursa Major. But…I could possibly take on the Ursa Major for a while just until she can take care of the rest of the Grimm in place. Yeah, that sounds like a good plan_.'

"Pyrrha I'm going to ask you something important as your leader."

"What?"

"I'm going to stall the Ursa Major for a while for you to kill the rest of the Ursa. You can't deal with the rest of the Ursa with it hoarding you and I can't deal with the rest of the Ursa period" he said while partly examining his Aura Soldiers that were broken in parts but still durable enough, "Kill the rest of the Ursa and save my hide as fast as you can."

"Charge! Attack!"

Saying those orders, Jaune commanded his Aura Soldiers to charge at the Ursa Major. Knight-2 was the sacrifice to take the hit for Knight-1 and Knight-3 to distract it further. Three seconds later, he saw exactly that as Knight-2 had its arms crushed before the Ursa Major literally ripped it in half and within the next moment, caused his body to swell slightly with the aura that he regained.

Jaune gulped with the imagery of that happening to him.

-Then the Ursa Major looked at him.

"Well crap."

Mentally ordering (because talking was too slow now), his two Aura Soldiers, Jaune was able to get Knight-3 to grab his arm before flinging him away from a strike from the Grimm. He didn't look back at the other Ursai. He had no time to do so and he trusted Pyrrha to follow his orders to help him when she could.

However the feeling from being thrown through the air wasn't a pleasant one at all. The feeling of vomiting was a bad one and it was even worse when I had to supress it because I was currently in a battle.

Sooner than he could get a bearing, he felt a sharp pain impact from where he landed but not before his eyes widened as he saw Knight-1 get destroyed as well. Mentally cursing not giving orders to it to at least try to avoid any attacks, Jaune felt the considerable amount of aura used to make Knight-1 come back to him.

He was now at around 30% aura capacity after taking some damage from being thrown.

"Deploy! Set Knight-4! Knight-5!" he shouted hoping that his shortened commands could activate the skill.

Fortunately for him, it did and two more Aura Soldiers appeared in front of him with shields raised to guard him. In the next second as he _felt_ danger and scrambled out of the way, the Ursa Major _slaughtered_ the two aura constructs with too much ease just as Jaune once more recovered to 15% of his total aura.

"Crap. Crap. _Crap_ this is bad" he muttered as he ran back to where Knight-3 was just as the Ursa Major finished pounding the remains of the short-lived Knight-4 and Knight-5. He really hoped that Pyrrha was finishing up on her end to help him.

"Deploy! Set Knight-6! Distract!" he barked out to Knight-3 the newly formed Knight-6, both of which moved in his mind, too slowly, too uncoordinated and too… _clumsy_ for him to use them effectively.

He gritted his teeth as the Ursa Major slammed both Aura Soldiers to the ground, immediately destroying Knight-3 and leaving Knight-6 without the ability to move even if barely functional right now. Jaune could've made Knight-6 disappear so he had enough aura along with the amount he regained thanks to the destruction of Knight-3 to create another Aura Soldier but he didn't have _time_.

The Ursa Major leaped and Jaune didn't not have the physical ability to dodge at that moment as the claw came crashing down at him.

 **Death** came to him.

' _No no no nonononononononnononono!_ '

-Before **_white_** consumed his entire vision as the claw _rebounded_ off his chest.

Several things happened, as the _fast_ mind of Jaune Arc noticed. One was that despite the claw of the Ursa Major being rebounded off his chest armour which by all means should've been penetrated and resulted in him being dead, it didn't stop the momentum that was the result of the strike. Second was that the Ursa Major was equally rebounded back as well. Finally, Knight-6 which barely remained in existence _shattered_ into pieces as a large gaping hole appeared in it.

A beat passed.

"aaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

And everything turned to black as his vision turned to black.

-o-

The first thing Jaune noticed as he regained consciousness was that he had a pounding headache, most likely due to whatever his head hit when that strike that should've killed him from the Ursa Major caused him to be shot away without a harm besides the momentum which was the things that really screwed him over.

"What happened?" he grumbled as his vision cleared a bit more.

He wasn't dead. The pain he was feeling and the aches that he would be feeling tomorrow attest to that. But on the flip side, Jaune was wondering how he _survived_ an Ursa Major and not manage to get instantly killed like he should've. He was barely a F rank Hunter and was in no shape or form capable of taking out, _stalling_ a C rank threat like that.

"You got hit by a Ursa _Major_ " Pyrrha deadpanned, "I'm more surprised that it only took you a few minutes to wake up. Most concussion makes people be knocked out for hours most of the time."

"I have a hard head" he idly replied without thinking much. His head still hurt from the headaches but it was getting better.

He heard a snort and looked to see his partner say, "I figured that out when you forced me to take care of the rest of the Ursa while you faced a Ursa _Major_! And you almost got killed as well. You're so lucky your semblance decided to appear in that moment-"

"I lived."

"That's not the point. You almost _died_ -"

"Pyrrha" Jaune shot her a serious stern look before sighing immediately afterwards, "As Hunters…we accepted the risks that came with our profession. If dying meant you living, then I would willingly go back there over and over again no matter the costs."

He smiled as he said, "You're important to me."

Jaune Arc at that moment got a look at what many people elsewhere in the world, people who knew that Pyrrha was famous would've loved and would've killed to see. It was a sight that Jaune ingrained into his mind preventing even blunt force trauma memory erasion from taking it away from him.

Namely, the sight of Pyrrha Nikos, the _Invincible Girl_ blushing and stuttering beyond anything he had ever seen. And he had seen the _pathetic_ flirting attempts from that one guy that stalked and later dated and quickly broken up with one of his sisters.

(In a completely unrelated topic, on that day, Jaune's flirting attempts went from straight innocent shy-like to the boastful annoying 'flirting' we know today. The Arc Family _still_ offered a lot of Lien to off the person that caused of this change…and many of the 'victims' to this new Jaune as well after stomping on his balls)

"Still…" he muttered, "I'm surprised that I survived the…impact."

He wasn't sure if he was talking about the claw that was about to impale him or the following that knocked him out good.

"That was…" Pyrrha hesitated to say, "Most likely the effect of your semblance, or at least one of them. Sometimes you really only see one part of what your semblance can do for a while until you test some things, figure out stuff out before you really know what you can do."

Poking at where the Ursa claw should've pierced through she added, "From what I can tell, your semblance is capable of _transferring_ damage from yourself to your aura. That was most likely why your Aura Soldier was destroyed because that was connected to your aura. If not for that fact I would've called it 'One Fatal Damage Transfer' considering it only activates on fatal attacks towards you but that's not the full extent of your semblance and more likely an unconscious attempt to survive."

"You mean…" he patted himself at that same location, "It can do _more_?"

"Yes."

"How do you know that?" he asked. He wasn't anything that special, why would his semblance be special then? He didn't _need_ to be special. He just needed to be a good hunter, a good hero to the people.

She sighed remembering something, "When I first awakened my semblance…people thought it was something like 'Magnetic Attraction' which wasn't that great of a power. It really only started when I only knew that I could sense metal around me and _pull_ it towards me."

"But then you figured out how to push with your semblance as well."

"Yes. But that was not all. I could _manipulate_ metal to such an extent that not many could even touch me with my constant training of my semblance. Even though my semblance is called _Polarity_ , it's most accurate name is 'Magnetic Polarity' which means I can only affect metal and through magnetic means" she said before muttering, "Not that I use it that often these days."

"Still, better to have a tool or skill than not."

"True but back to you Jaune. Don't think I don't know how you somehow always want to push topics away from yourself and to other people. Just as you said I'm important to you, you're important me" she said glaring slightly.

He…really didn't know what to say to that.

"In theory your ability to transfer away damage on impact could be called 'Damage Transfer' if you could do it on will or do it consecutively by yourself" she said, "But that doesn't explain your strange connection to your Aura Soldiers. If your semblance _just_ transfers fatal damage to them, there should not change in the skill otherwise which itself would make you quite powerful."

"But it did and that means my semblance does more than it appears at first glance" he replied.

Pyrrha nodded.

"In the barest sense, the naming scheme that the guild and all hunters use follows one rule. The more complicated the name of the semblance, the more limitations that it has to use. For example, someone who can draw power from…lightning to strengthen their muscles will have a semblance called 'Lightning Drain Draw Power' in that they can _only_ draw power with their semblance with that condition and show an immunity to lightning damage as a result."

"Or just 'Channel Electricity into Muscle'" supplied Jaune.

"That too."

"Then what you said about 'One Fatal Damage Transfer' means that it only activates a singular time, only response to fatal damage and it can transfer it?" he wondered, "But you said my semblance is more than it seems."

"And that means your semblance can be called 'One Fatal Damage Transfer' to just 'Transfer' which is the highest possible form of your semblance in a sense. To _transfer_ anything would be extremely powerful but 'Damage Transfer' does not include transferring your physical abilities onto your Aura Soldiers" she said.

"So…" he looked at Pyrrha in the eye, "It may not be 'Damage Transfer' but _some_ kind of 'Transfer' type semblance that both involves transferring damage from myself to my Aura Soldiers as well as my physical abilities and maybe even more. Something like 'Aura Transfer' maybe?"

Thinking it over again Jaune sighed, "This is really complicated."

"Yes it is. There is a reason why most people don't bother with semblance unless they are powerful in the way they want it to be or if they affect hunters enough" she agreed.

"So…what now?" asked Jaune looking at his body for any wounds and any tears in his outfit. He was still poor and needed to know whether he needed to pay or medical aid or new durable clothes to wear.

His partner laughed to that, "First, we go back to town. Everything else can wait after that. I don't think we want to face more Grimm today."

Jaune grimaced at the thought of more fighting before agreeing, "Yeah, home would be nice right now."

* * *

 **A/N: So...I discovered the Spacebattles forums, guess what I've been doing since the last chapter? Lots and LOTS of reading, plus a rekindled love for Supreme Commander series (Basically my RTS childhood). Anyway, I think half the good Worm fanfics end up there as well as the completed RWBY/Gamer fic 'The Games We Play' which beyond me isn't completed here as well. Yeah, I thought the series was dropped before I visited and found the series completed a while back on Spacebattles .**

 **Anyway the delay was mainly thanks to lots of RL stuff and I just finished editing as much as I could without being OCD about it. The chapter was honestly supposed to be cut into two with the second half being the start of the mission but I changed my mind (And thus the chapter length went from 6K to 14K...)  
**

 **On a more interesting note, I managed to talk more about semblances! Yay. RWBY doesn't actually tell us much about them except they are the 'power of the soul' etc etc being unique to each person. Then that got me thinking of the _naming_ of some of them not making that much sense (to me that is). Key example, Pyrrha's semblance of 'Polarity'. Yeah, in a way you can easily think of how that includes things like magnetism to some extent but what about the other applications of Polarity? Isn't Polarity just two opposites coming together? If that's the case, can't Pyrrha in theory say...flip gravity in an area because her semblance is _Polarity_? But in RWBY all Pyrrha used her semblance always involved metal of some kind, which led to 'Magnetic Polarity' which means she can _only_ control polarity of that specific nature. **

**And this led to me thinking that the more complex and longer the names of a semblance, the more limitations there are to them. Nora's semblance is actually called 'Channel Electricity into Muscle' and Yang's one is called 'Draws Strength from Hits'. Ruby on the other hand has a relatively simple but powerful one with no limitations which is 'Speed' and Blake one is called 'Shadow' though it would be more precise to call Blake's one 'Shadow Afterimage Clone' base on how she uses it.**

 **Well this was an interesting talk...still Jaune's semblance is an 'Aura Transfer' type but whether or not it is more limited to just that...I have no idea. The idea is still flesh compared to everything else I had planned so yeah. It might only affect his Aura Soldiers and allows him to transfer fatal damage to them or it might be more.**

 **EDIT: Looking over from what I'm currently writing in chapter 5, I realised I made a mistake and needed to change it here. To be precise it is the stat requirement to get to C rank which before the edit was 200. It is in fact supposed to be 100. F to E rank has a requirement of 1 stat being over 25, E to D has a requirement of 2 stats being over 50, D to C has a requirement of 3 stats being over 100 and so on with 4 stats being over 250 for C to B and 5 stats over 500 for B to A. S rank being the only exception with 1 stat required to be over 1000.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I own nothing of RWBY which belongs to Rooster Teeth and the late Monty Owm.**

* * *

 **Chapter 4**

 **Benefit of Doubt**

As it turned out, his Aura Soldier skill was weird; no to be precise the skill itself was _weirder_ than he thought considering what he found out during the trip back. Considering that he and Pyrrha had no intentions of facing more Grimm at the moment, Jaune took the chance to see what else his semblance seemed to have changed with the Aura Soldier skill.

And it was looking towards _confusing_ beyond anything else.

Not only did the strength of his Aura Soldiers depend on him physically, the costs of deploying any of them to battle being taken from him percentage wise from his total aura capacity but the lasting time for them seemed to be indefinite from what he could tell as a classic signs of expiry such as parts fading or cracking away was no present even after a decent amount of time.

Naturally he was hopeful that this would mean that he could literally deploy Aura Soldiers that would not disappear and wait for his Aura to recover to deploy even more in an indefinite cycle where he could build an army against the Grimm. But things weren't that easy.

Jaune Arc could not regenerate any Aura in consumption by Aura Soldiers.

This meant the 15%, 30% or 50% worth of his Aura used to make an Aura Soldier would not come back unless said Aura Soldier died, destroyed or dismissed. In that sense, Jaune had an even more limited supply of Aura to use from this revelation especially when you consider how limited this was compared to all other Aura Soldier skill users.

Still it wasn't like everything that came from their recent hunt was negative. He had his first six kills and one of them included an Ursa! More than that, he had gotten decent stat increases from all the pains he went through in the battle.

 **Stats: [-]**

 **Power:** 11/25

 **Speed:** 14/25

 **Dexterity:** 7/25

 **Perception:** 14/25

 **Reaction Speed:** 15/25

 **Endurance:** 22/25

 **Stamina:** 20/25

 **Aura:** 183/25

Power and Speed increased by a point, Dexterity and Perception increased by 2 points, Reaction Speed by 3 points and Endurance and Aura by a whopping 4 points each. Jaune was actually surprised by the quite large increase that would've otherwise taken weeks of training to achieve and questioned Pyrrha about it.

"Hey Pyrrha. According to my A.U.R.A system…well my stats increased by quite a bit even compared to the training you placed me through. Any reasons why?" he asked.

To say anything, she reacted rather positively to it, more than he expected at least.

"How much did your stats increase?"

"Around…maybe a week or two worth of your training I think" he answered.

"Possible possible maybe" Pyrrha muttered under her breath while Jaune stopped in his track while scanning the surroundings a bit and sighed in relief that there were probably no dangers nearby for now.

Everywhere that was no caged in walls and combed with people and hunters was technically Grimm territory. That line was thinking was spread around for the last couple of decades and the paranoia helped keep a lot of people alive thanks to it. Even if said paranoia also helped cause a civil war between humans and faunus that ended up in the former's victory.

"Jaune I think it _may_ be possible that you're simply the type to grow faster during battle. Similar to how _'1 bout of live combat is worth 100 days of training'_ or something along those lines from what I can remember."

"There's actually a saying like that?" Jaune was bewildered that such a statement existed. It was certainly not something that he had heard of before.

Pyrrha shrugged, "It's an old saying in Mistral and one of the reasons why 'live combat' seemed to be really popular over there. It doesn't help that the prime entertainment of Mistral is seeing teens to young adults beat each other up."

The blonde shuddered at the thought. Vale in a way was the most 'peaceful' of the four kingdoms. Mistral was the most violent with crime, Atlas was literally a military at this point and Vacuo was a survivalist's wet dream with how everything there seemed to want to kill you from the stories he had heard.

He knew better than most that he would not be able to survive in any of those places as a Hunter for long. Efficiency, skills and general talent were all needed to raise and not fall away from the profession. Jaune doubted any of those Kingdoms aside from Vale would let someone screw up for 2 years running.

"Well for some reason I gained…13 points worth of stats from that battle?" he said and also questioning at the same time.

"That's actually quite normal Jaune, considering your stats are much lower than they should be for the level of battle you were just in" replied Pyrrha.

Jaune didn't like the sound of those words, or how it seemed to him that Pyrrha was silently mocking him in some ways. But then again, this was Pyrrha and he doubted she would just be the kind of person to play around with others. For whatever reason, she wanted his help in the future and he was inclined to give it.

"Jaune I'm not making fun of you in any way or form."

"Eh?"

Said blonde looked confused towards the red-head. It was like she was reading his mind or something nonsensical like that. But her semblance was polarity and he doubted she was lying or had a skill that was that powerful.

"I can see your thoughts on your face. You're quite easy to read you know" she smiled.

Jaune fidgeted, "I know…even now I'm just…tired of people putting expectations on me to be something that I'm not and blaming me when I'm not that person they wish they had."

"It gets worse when you actual achieve their expectations one or twice when you least expect it" she snorted in a way he never expected before sighing heavily, "I'm the _Invincible Girl_. If it was up to the world I should be able to slay giant Nevermores with a slash and stomp on even Goliath with ease when I can barely take out a pack of Ursa even with your help."

Jaune shot Pyrrha a fearful look, "I would've died without you. And they expect you to deal with _worse_?"

"Yes. Because people always want more than what they can get" she nodded.

"Still" he rubbed his forehead from the stress, "What was that with how it was normal for my growth to be this fast. I mean I know by stats are generally low but really? I mean it wasn't like you were holding back on training me."

"…."

" _Riggght_?"

"Actually yeah" she admitted with a bit of shame, "While aura tends to help with recovery and also training it's not good to push the body especially when you know it can't handle some things first. If your first training session, _any_ of your training sessions were on the level of that battle we just had…"

Jaune gulped and silently agreed to her mercy. The training she was giving him before was already hellish but the battle even more so. If all his training sessions were going to be like that from now on, he might as well start crying right now. There was a distinct line between _just_ too much and just dying here and he didn't want to cross it in a matter of training.

But more than that, Jaune thought of the amount of training he did to gain the amount of stats he had just gained from a single battle. It was around a week's worth of training but at the same time he knew that Pyrrha wouldn't push him too much. Perhaps that was the point when the training started to be less effective than actual battles.

"So basically it's a difference between steady and safe training and effective and dangerous battles?" he wondered.

"No" she retorted before pausing, "Actually yes. Dangerous stuff tends to make people stronger quicker than people who take the safe route. However a _lot_ of people die because they end up overestimating themselves and pushing too far in a dangerous situation rather than retreating."

He frowned.

"Is it really that dangerous?" he inquired.

Pyrrha shook her head, "Yes and no. In battles against Grimm, it's almost expected for you to sometimes fight and win against odds that are not in your favour. But at the same time there is a good reason why Hunters die a lot the longer their careers are. Only the most cautious and most skilled live after a decade and sometimes not even that."

"So I have to get used to battles like we just did?" he sighed.

"Unfortunately" she grimaced in turn, "There aren't enough Hunters out there already and Grimm outnumbers humanity to such a large extent. Those who do manage to retire often don't last long because even then, they prefer to fight to running away."

Reflecting on that point and how he didn't have any grandparents…or aunts, uncles or cousins. He knew he used to. His father often talked about his two brothers that he once fought with and his mum also talked about her twin sister from time to time. However they died before they settled down as retired hunters.

Well 'retired' as in no longer being pushed to complete a large number of missions at a time or actively trying to take down Grimm in emergency requests in the middle of the night. Thanks to how Aura tend to not only make people stronger in every single way, it also extents to Hunters' lifespans, making them seem younger than they actually are.

Case, if you compared his mum to his sisters, not many would be able to tell that they are actually mother and daughters except by how they move, talk and what clothes they tend to want to wear. Due to ongoing technological advancements, the outfits Hunters wear are constantly changing and 'retired' Hunters don't have the money from many active missions nor the will to completely change their fighting styles for more protection.

"I guess this just means I need to do a lot of missions to get stronger then" he finally said, "If that's the way to get stronger and catch up to you."

Pyrrha gave him a sad smile, "Oh Jaune, you're doing more than I ever expected."

Jaune didn't know whether to be happy or sad at the expectations Pyrrha had for him…and whether or not that he surpassed what could've been an extremely low one.

-o-

"So…" Gred tapped the desk repeatedly. It was honestly annoying Jaune and Gred probably knew that and only continued to further annoy him as much as possible. Ha! In the end, it would be Gred that would be swamped with paperwork.

Missions that go back are always more of a pain to report.

"You as the party leader Jaune and party member Pyrrha in the morning had taken the Mission ID: 00246654 which is a relatively easy _beginner_ mission which involves subjugating a couple of Boarbatusks which you" he pointed at Jaune, "Did perfectly well as recording 5 confirmed Boarbatusk kills but along the way you two got attacked…"

"My a pack of Ursa totalling to a dozen lead by a Ursa Major" Pyrrha helpfully supplied.

The receptionist let out a groan and muttered a couple of curses under his breath before shaking a glare towards the already piling stack of paperwork to his side. If he had the ability to burn things with his glare, both the paperwork and Jaune in particular would've long since combusted.

"You two do realises that if not for the fact the Grimm stumbled on you, you would've been violating the Settlement Grimm Hunting Act?" he asked.

Jaune raised his hand causing Gred to sigh.

"The Settlement Grimm Hunting Act is something that came into place when humanity noticed that by killing Grimm in high quantity and clearing out an area, more Grimm will come in to investigate" he explained, "Because of this, many smaller settlements were destroyed because Hunters quite literally hunted too many Grimm at the same time."

"So why exactly do the Grimm do this. The basic study course just tells us to kill as many Grimm as possible before dying if possible" Jaune asked.

It said a lot to how humanity had survived till now that neither Gred nor Pyrrha even blinked an eye to how new teenage Hunters were being told to fight Grimm and die while taking as much as the former with them as possible. Really, if the Guild or Kingdoms really cared about putting as some would say 'children' onto the battlefield, they would've long increased the age of admission of gaining Hunter rank to be 18 and not 15 years of age.

"That is correct but not many people _need_ to remember that _too_ much hunting will cause bad things to happen. Grimm frankly are attracted to two things, Aura and emotions. The former not so much considering most living things has aura in one way or another and the latter to an extent but _both_ at the same time?" the middle-aged man shook his head, " _That_ attracts them as much as a mass panic in some cases."

"Still, a pack of Ursai shouldn't be that much of a problem right?" Pyrrha looked worried this time.

"I'm not sure" Gred admitted, "The problem isn't that _you_ hunted them down in self-defence for your lives and possible others but rather that they were _there_ to begin with, in a range that places them to sooner or later attack this town."

"That's…a problem then" Jaune looked stricken of the thought of the town being attacked by something that… _strong_. There weren't that many Hunters in town and most of them didn't like him for one reason or another. But he knew they could take care of themselves with the strongest being a D rank Huntsman.

However the rest of the town? None of them had active aura. None of them had training to fight against _Grimm_ beyond simple Boarbatusks that are often able to kill an unexpecting person at times when they weren't paying that much attention to them. And unlike story tales, even Boarbatusks were dangerous and everything else up a ramp.

Gred palmed his hands onto his forehead, "Yes…it is. Including you two we have a total of 27 Hunters, all of them quite young else retired with various crippling injuries. The strongest after Pyrrha here who's a C rank Huntresses is a D rank Huntsman and the rest being a variety of E rankers and Jaune here being the sole F rank Huntsman of this place."

"But far from the weakest now."

Both Jaune and Gred turned to Pyrrha who said those words.

"What?" she shrugged, "It's true. If I had partnered with anyone else they might or might not have lasted, all of them would've died today, even that D rank one who only got his rank from brute strength alone."

"That and all of them would've been trying to suck up to me in one form or another or trying to get into my pants so to speak" she continued causing Jaune to blush a bit and Gred to chuckle looking between the two.

He nudged Jaune and not so whispered, "You actually _haven't_ tried hitting on her?"

Jaune in turn shot him a startled look replying in almost a shout, "Are you kidding me?! She can _easily_ snap me in two if I ever tried and she's far to kind to do that…but she could!"

This time sighing with a headache, Jaune asked, "So what now Gred? We both know that I need to write a report on this but I want to know what will happen after that."

"Well, it's rather simple. You get the Lien from 5 Boarbatusk kills and a Ursa kill which is rather remarkable, that you haven't died from a lone one let alone a pack of them. After that you can save it up for whatever or start paying your debt."

"How much do I get?"

"500 Lien per Boarbatusk so 2500 in total there and 5000 Lien for the Ursa kill which totals up to 7500 Lien in total Gred looked a bit smug before adding, "And Pyrrha here for killing 11 Ursai gets 55 000 Lien and a further 30 000 Lien for the Ursa Major kill totalling to 85 000 Lien."

"Then we subtract 10% for Guild taxes and another 10% for the Vale Kingdom tax which totals up to 18 500 Lien in taxes that leaves you two with a total of 74 000 Lien from this mission" he continued without missing a beat.

"In total your party made 92 500 Lien before tax and 74 000 Lien after tax which per party rules that had been established when you two entered a contract with each other, Jaune will get 20% that is 14 800 Lien which is determined by half the cut minus 10% per rank lower he is to Pyrrha while she gets the rest which is 59 200 Lien."

Gred tapped the screen a couple of time before saying, "Please confirm the amount being deposited into your accounts."

 **[Mission ID: 00246654 has been completed]**

 **[Current share distribution: Jaune 20%, Pyrrha 80%]**

 **[14 800 Lien has been added to A.U.R.A account]**

While knowing what would probably happen thanks to how distribution of Lien worked with parties, he still felt guilty which he got more than twice as much as he should've from the mission results. Pyrrha took on almost all of the Ursai and while he managed to only kill one, she managed the rest of the battle on her own without his help.

"Yeah got the amount."

"Me too."

Jaune at that point ignored whatever words Gred and Pyrrha were having about something about the thing that happened with the Ursai and was thinking more on how much he needed to buy a good quality sword and armour. Sure he should consider paying off his debt as quick as possible but it wouldn't matter if he was dead right?

But at the same time he was hesitant on taking the money because less than half of it was earnt by him and him alone. Without Pyrrha he wouldn't be alive right now and here was the option to take her contribution? However he knew that he actually needed the money for supplies and whatnots. A lot of people would've just taken the money for that reason and for less.

Still, he _was_ her party leader and she didn't complain at all in him taking a share of the money that was a lot higher than he should so he couldn't complain without making an ass of himself. That and it was a bit of his fault because he didn't think there was such an option of splitting the Lien like that. Next time…he should switch to an option that gives lien to how they contributed overall.

That way, he would feel better in taking the lien instead of feeling guilty like this for taking advantage of Pyrrha whether in her help, training and in saving his life multiple times. Grumbling a bit more mentally on how he should train some more to help Pyrrha more, he _almost_ missed the following words.

"Can I transfer my contributions towards Jaune's debt?" his too good partner asked.

Jaune was shocked to the point he didn't respond and could only listen as Gred said, "Sure if you want to. But why do you want to pay the brat's debt like that? You have more than enough lien to outright resolve the entire thing right now if you want."

"Today was supposed to be an _easy_ mission where Jaune worked on his own for his own reward in his effort. He almost died because I wasn't careful enough to sense that there were Ursai in ambush for us deeper into the forest. Either way, I always intended to help pay for his debt with his first mission" she replied.

"Good enough for me" Gred grunted before tapping on his screen a few times.

"Right. Please confirm the transfer of Lien to pay off Jaune Arc, Huntsman ID: 341544 of 183 000 Lien" said Gred sending a couple smirks towards Jaune who once more, _really_ did not know what was going on.

Really, what was going on?

 **[Accept Transfer of 59 200 Lien from Pyrrha Nikos towards Jaune Arc's debt of 183 000 Lien? Y/N?]**

Seeing the prompt, Jaune immediately selected 'N' and dismissed the entire thing quickly to the point that he doubt that he could've rejected the offer any sooner.

"Pyrrha?" he smiled at his partner. Noticeably his smile did not at all reach his eyes that he figured were trying to combust her into flames with his glare alone.

"Yes Jaune?" she replied seemingly unfazed and looked nonchalantly as if she didn't do anything wrong in her books.

Jaune simply continued to smile to scare the crap out of Gred who seemed to be the bystander in all of this. He already knew what was going in her head the entire time when she did this. How could he not? He was her partner and also leader and most importantly, her friend of all.

She felt responsible for him.

"Damn it Pyrrha" he pinched his nose in the sheer frustration he was feeling towards her right now. What she did might have gathered the loyalty and greed of another quickly and easily, it meant nothing to him.

"I don't need your help in paying my debts. _That_ is my lone responsibility and will be taken from me and me alone okay?" he said.

Pyrrha was silent but nodded still the same.

"You need the money for weapons, armour, supplies. You will be risking your life more if you don't let me pay for you. I rather not let you die on me because you were too stubborn to accept a bit of charity that you can pay back later" she explained helpfully.

Shaking his head Jaune just responded with, "I don't _need_ the charity. What I need is for you to trust me enough that I don't off myself doing something stupid without good reason. If I don't want you to pay my debts, then I don't want you to pay my debts. I would've otherwise asked you to begin with."

"The lase makes a good point" Gred spoke up, "It's an entirely _stupid_ decision to make but still one he made willingly on his own."

Sending a glare to the receptionist his partner gritted out, "You knew that he wouldn't accept and you played along."

"Hey I'm just doing my job here. Blame Jaune for being a stubborn arse about these things. Arcs and their word and debts I say are a horrible thing to get between", he said, raising his hands up in surrender.

" **I** gave my word to pay back the guild for the debt that I had incurred from my own actions. Therefore only I can pay back the debts else there will still be a debt" he really didn't need to explain it since most people got it, "And besides, it's not like I have to pay back all of the debt at once. I will pay it bit by bit right?"

"Correct" the middle-aged man nodded, "The Guild doesn't care at all on when or how but rather if you can pay it back. The laid-back action is mostly because there are a lot of Hunters that need to be in debt to pay for supplies to do missions to pay back their debt all while their actions helps out humanity against the Grimm."

He shrugged in the end.

And the saddest part is that is made perfectly sense for the Guild to do this. Make no mistake, the Guild, the Hunter Associated and countless other organisations that are involved in Hunters all want _more_ Hunters out there killing Grimm and making the safe-zones of humanity safe.

Then why would they do things that would cause less of them to appear in battle and fight to the death to protect humanity? Why stop them from fighting, why let them die due to a lack of resources when they can be armed and be in debt to them to allow them to die for them?

Because they are the first and last line of defence against Grimm, they are given more leniencies from whatever actions they commit whether criminal or not. Because more than any other profession out there, they are most likely to die, they are given luxuries that allow them more incisive to fight for humanity while leaving others starved, diseased and dead. Because Hunters require a lot of resources to maintain, debts are easily shouldered to allow them to fight no matter what while others are unforgiven.

It is for this reason that even for Jaune Arc, F rank Hunter with a debt of 183 000 Lien, that he was allowed to continue working hard because the Guild and Humanity _needed_ more people out there, failure or not. It is a sad affair that is well known but never commented on but humanity was _losing_.

Slowly but surely, inch by inch, village by village the Grimm slowly invaded, surrounded and cut Humanity from any safety. Decades ago before the Great War, there was the Kingdom of Mantle that sat at the upmost part of the maps of Remnant. It was destroyed and Atlas was born further south but yet still does not compare to what Mantle once was.

And it was not only Atlas that was born from older, destroyed Kingdoms. It may have been more decades before Mantle fell, centuries in fact but if you trace the histories of each Kingdom, they were at best only almost two centuries old. Grimm…doesn't exactly make it easy for anyone to survive without the backing of Kingdoms, quite literal fortresses of defences against the Grimm.

It is why it is often that smaller villages, edged furthest away from the centre of the Kingdoms themselves often disappear and are only reported only after it is far too late. Everyone knows this and nobodies think of what that means because negative emotions can only lead to more Grimm coming your way.

"Anyway Pyrrha…" he sighed, "You don't need to help me in everything I do. I can handle some things on my own you know."

"Fine then" she seemed tired at that moment. Perhaps the battle was catching up to her now.

Giving her a quick hug, Jaune whispered, "Let's take a break for today. Training can come tomorrow" before leaving for his apartment for a good shower and lots of sleep.

-o-

"So how am I going to learn _Aura Charge_? I mean, I needed to read an entire book that was an _index_ for the rest of the manuals to use Aura Soldiers and that took _forever_ to learn even when I managed to skip most of the stuff that I didn't need to know" asked Jaune.

Some may say that he was foolish to do such a thing but consider this; there were possibly _thousands_ of manuals, books and textbooks on how to use the Aura Soldier skill. 99% of them were useless and were really there as the various different reference experiences of the users that actually didn't matter to everyone else most of the time.

If you dug deep enough, perhaps you may have learnt a thing or two about what not to do with the skill but the time needed to do so compared to actually _learning_ how to use the skill was so inefficient that there was another book published as a guide on what necessary things you needed to learn to use the skill as quick as possible.

Naturally Jaune took this approach as everyone else did.

And it is because of his experience in gaining his (lone) skill that Jaune couldn't help but to think that he would be forced to take more months to solely focus on learning it and waste his time in the end.

"It's actually simpler than learning one of the most complex skills like Aura Soldiers-"

 _'Wait what? What do you mean by most complex?'_ Jaune thought.

"In order to gain the kind of skills such as Aura Charge, you need to be do two things, to be able to transmute your aura into an object and second to enhance it using the special property of aura" said Pyrrha picking up a thin stick.

A second later, there was a _thin_ layer of Pyrrha's distinct black-like aura surrounding said object before she tossed it into another tree and piercing through it almost easily. Jaune blinked once, twice before he realised what just happened.

"So that's…" he pointed at the rather small hole he could barely see.

She nodded, "The Aura Charge skill in essential is like using Aura to enhance your own body except in _other_ objects.

He paused to that.

"One question" he asked, "How…exactly do I enhance my body? I mean I get the _passive_ enhancement that aura does but not how to use it actively. Most of my time was spent more on trying to learn and later mastering Aura Soldier for the past two years."

"You mean you haven't-"

"Like I said, last two _years_ " he repeated.

Pyrrha seeing the look that Jaune had in his eyes (eerily similar to the other Aura Soldier skill users surprisingly) gulped and nodded to his words and took it on strides before starting to explain to him how to use aura to enhance his own body which in hindsight would've also been useful yesterday.

"Okay then. To put it simply and even more bluntly, the _Aura Enhancement_ skill is something that most beginner Hunters learn as a way to actively 'burn' their aura for a lack of a better word to increase the capabilities of their bodies" she began.

On the other side of things, Jaune was mentally groaning at the loss of so much time with such a potential tool for his quite limited arsenal. If what Pyrrha was explaining to him was correct, with his aura reserves he might have been able to _boost_ his physical capabilities with this Aura Enhancement skill enough that he could've bare-handed taken down Boarbatusks on his own let alone combined with Aura Charge.

"The effect is temporary in that there is no actual permanent effect of using Aura Enhancement for training but it does help in building up aura reserves though that's mainly through depleting and recovering aura over and over again."

"But how does it actually work? Can I use it to individually on one aspect of my body like my power, speed and reaction speed or is it something more universal?"

"Both at the same time" she answered without stopping, "The low proficiency of use of the Aura Enhancement skill, most users are able to boost the aspects of their bodies roughly evenly. The more control you have over the skill and in aura in general, the more you can delicate aura to something you wish."

The red-head shrugged once more and flecked her arm out with such a thin trail of aura he almost couldn't spot it, "That and the more control you have, the less visual effects you get making it easier to use without seeming like a human flash-light."

"…."

He stared at Pyrrha to that imagery before chuckling a bit of the thought of himself being a pure white flash-light for everyone else around him. But there was still one thing he needed to ask before he could attempt to learn these two skills together.

"Do I have to learn one or the other first? And is one more difficult to learn and use than the other?"

Pyrrha hummed to those questions, "No you don't need to learn one before the other and that really depends on you. There are simply some people better at enhancing their own bodies with aura and other better at charging objects with aura."

"So I can pretty much learn both Aura Enhancement and Aura Charge at the same time?" he inquired.

"Yes. They are quite similar in nature but very different in application though but it's the difference between internal and external manipulation of aura" she explained, "You already have a good handle on the external side."

His lips thinned as he thought and said, "You mean my Aura Soldier skill? Huh…yeah I suppose that counts as external."

Flexing his hand, he _remembered_ the feeling of his aura exiting his body and within seconds, there was a faint light that came from his white aura that surrounded his hand. Part of him thought that he did it but Pyrrha shook her head.

"You're just surrounding your hand with aura. It might increase your offence and defence somewhat but that's not aura enhancement. You need to _internalise_ it into your flesh, muscles and bones for it to most effectively enhance yourself" she said while demonstrating.

In a split second, her hand was covered by a slight bit of black aura that looked faded more than anything else like it was black and yet not black at the same time, but at the same time Jaune could…feel-connect-observe(?) the effect it had on her hand. If only by the feeling on the back of his neck that was telling him that the hand was much more dangerous than just before.

Looking at his hands again, Jaune concentrated on the feeling that he got from Pyrrha on one hand while comparing it to what he did to the other. One was protected by aura and the other _was_ aura in a way but at the same time were his own flesh, muscle and bones all in one. He could feel the _change_ and how it made his simple hand into something akin to a _weapon_.

"This feeling…" he muttered to himself.

Doing this...it was like walking on a log in a way but at the same time had the danger of there being no safety to protect him and boiling acid just a distance below him just in case he screwed up.

Needless to say for his reputation and actual performance, Jaune Arc was surprisingly competent when his life was in danger.

From the various things that Pyrrha had taught him, one stood out right now. Aura was a multiplier and that amount that it did depended on how much aura you had, around a tenth of his total aura reserves if he remembered correctly. Currently he had 183 units of aura according to A.U.R.A which means he should get around 18.3% more effectiveness from this part of his hand.

 **[Confirming application of Aura]**

 **[Analysing Aura application and cross-referencing with A.U.R.A database]**

 **[Skill: Aura Enhancement has been identified. Skill has been created]**

Not missing a beat, Jaune opened up his A.U.R.A system.

"Activate A.U.R.A scan."

 **Name ID: Jaune Arc**

 **Huntsman ID: 341544**

 **Huntsman Rank: F**

 **Stats: [+]**

 **Skills: [+]**

 **Money: 15 227 Lien**

"Show skills."

 **Skills: [-]**

 **Aura Soldier (Mastered): Capable of creating Aura Constructs in the form of humanoid combat units.**

· **Mastery of skill allows for you to deploy multiple weaker Aura Soldiers or singular stronger Aura Soldier. (Can create 1 at double strength, 3 at full strength, 6 at half strength)**

· **Mastery of skill allows you to deploy multiple types Aura Soldiers in battle that you can modify at any time.**

· **Mastery of skill allows you recover half Aura spent on deploying Aura Soldiers when destroyed.**

 **Aura Enhancement (Proficiency: Novice): Capable of using Aura to internally boost the natural physical abilities of the human body.**

· **Novice Proficiency allows for minor application of increased power and defence in affected areas.**

· **Novice Proficiency allows for partial coverage of the body and takes more than 1 second for Aura Enhancement to appear.**

· **Novice Proficiency causes twice the aura costs in using this skill.**

Nodding to himself Jaune turned to look at Pyrrha, "Got the skill but it doesn't say how much the power and defence of any affected areas will be."

"That actually depends on you. If pump more aura into yourself than usual than you usually get more power but if you use less than the opposite will happen. Novice proficiency if I recall allow users a really rough level of control over how much they can make themselves stronger" she said.

Tilting his head he asked, "So the more I use it, the better I will eventually get to it? It took me a long time to master the Aura Soldier skill."

"Maybe. Maybe not?" she shrugged, "Like semblances, these things depends on each person differently. Now let's see how you go with Aura Charge" before handing him the stick.

He nodded as he took the stick and started injecting it with Aura, "Right."

The first thing he noticed was that the process of possibly using Aura Charge was remarkably similar to what Aura Enhancement was, as Pyrrha stated a minute ago, but at the same time the seeming feeling of danger that was associated with Aura Enhancement even a little bit was not present at all.

 _'This may be easier than I thought'_ he thought while making sure his aura didn't crush the stick instead of making it stronger…or do both at the same time.

Eventually or rather inevitably with Pyrrha giving him some tips here and there, the Aura Charge skill was registered.

 **[Confirming application of Aura]**

 **[Analysing Aura application and cross-referencing with A.U.R.A database]**

 **[Skill: Aura Charge has been identified. Skill has been created]**

 **Aura Charge (Proficiency: Novice): Capable of using Aura to externally boost the natural physical abilities of an imbued object.**

· **Novice Proficiency allows for minor application of increased power and durability in affected object.**

· **Novice Proficiency allows for minor sync in increasing ability with object instinctively for battle purposes.**

· **Novice Proficiency causes twice the aura costs in using this skill.**

Blinking at the second 'ability' of the skill, Jaune was a bit surprised that such a thing existed and at the same time reran memories of Hunters doing things with objects they just picked up and using them as _weapons_. He had seen long loafs of _bread_ being used as _swords_ and a damn _turkey_ being used as a _glove_.

Now seeing this and the other possible uses of such a thing, he had only one thing to say to this.

"Aura is complete bullshit" he deadpanned waving the stick that was glowing white thanks to his own aura. It didn't help that he felt like he knew how to use this even when he sucked with using swords and other weapons normally thanks to how aura has connected him to it.

In response to his wise words, Pyrrha snorted out a laugh, "Yes, Aura is extremely powerful when you know how to use it. You'll be surprised on how many don't bother to learn these small and yet significant skills."

"Really?" he raised his eyebrow, "I can see at least a dozen different ways this can save my life at this moment. Why wouldn't anyone not learn these skills?"

"Perhaps they are focusing on another skill at the moment, or they don't see the use of something not completely flashy" she gave a sad smile to that, "And people wonder why I'm stronger than them when I choose the _right_ skills to learn."

"So…" he drawled out, "If someone had the right combination of skills faced you, they would be able to beat you?"

"Yes" she agreed almost too quickly, "While I am proficient in close-mid-long range combat, I am not actually the best in any of them. A brawler with use of fists alone can take me in close combat, someone with as fast as me or more so can take me in mid-range combat and any sniper can take me out in long-range combat."

"But you can fire at the brawler; use your semblance to easily take out the second no matter how fast and even take on the sniper thanks to your shield" he pointed out before pausing, "Is that why you chose your weapons and shield?"

"Possibly. I always wanted to use a sword and shield combination style of fighting and that only extended into Milo being able to change into a javelin and rifle when I needed more range in combat" she stated with little emotion, like she was just restating something she said too many times.

Feeling that this direction of conversation wouldn't play out as nice as he hoped, Jaune moved onto the other topic that he wanted to talk to Pyrrha about. Namely about any future training he would get from her from now on. Not that he actually _wanted_ to use her to help him train all the time, most of the boring stuff she didn't need to supervise but did anyway.

…..

…..

"So about my training from now on" Jaune spoke up, "After the last mission…which we can only agree to be a fucked up one, well…I'm basically lacking in so many areas that even having Aura Soldier isn't enough to let me survive them."

One Pyrrha Nikos sighed to that. She knew where he was coming from and her heart went to him in the feeling of being able to do nothing when it matters most. However at the same time, training could not be rushed, it needed to be precise, controlled and significant at the same time to get full effectiveness.

There was a good reason why training tends to take _years_ and not months and weeks instead.

But on that thought, Jaune did not have the luxury of spending more years on slowly developing his own skills and body into something he could be proud of. He was the same age she was and yet only got a faction of the same foundation training she got. But at the same time she knew that his training would naturally differ from hers in the role that they had.

Jaune was the leader and tactician at the same time and served that role well…or would have if there was more to their party than just the two of them. With the limited people and skill-set he had to deal with, many of the plans he had brainstorm with her wouldn't work, though she admits that his skills in planning far outstripped him.

She was…well the combat specialist. It was only natural that she was superior to him in combat related tasks and most likely would be in the future be the core of some of the strategies involved with dealing with powerful foes or stalling many at once with her skills.

…But back to her leader.

In terms of pure ability, he was in the lower E rank range and was honestly not that bad all considering the lack of pure physical training that would've pushed him to become stronger than before. Still, the only reason he could rate him of that level would be only due to his large Aura reserves as well as his stats leaning towards Endurance and Stamina meaning he could take more hits than normal.

Otherwise, his other stats were rather unremarkable being that Speed, Perception and Reaction speed were quite low but not as low as Power and definitely not as low as Dexterity. Pyrrha already considered helping him in weapon use but she knew deep down that Jaune would never be good at using weapons though some correction in stances, and basic training there would do wonders to improve that particular stat.

That left the rest of the stats two bound in that Jaune needed two types of training. One would help improve his Speed, Perception and Reaction Speed in one and the other would just be muscle training focusing on improving his Power, Endurance and Stamina in particular.

"If you wish Jaune" she said while looking closely at her leader's face to tell if he was agreeable to this or not, "We can step up our training from now on. I think you can currently take more…specialised training to improve your stats in particular."

Seeing no signs of disagreement she internally sighed and continued, "Originally I wanted to focus more on building your Endurance and Stamina in particular since they tend to help Hunters survive conflict more than anything else and also focused on getting your skills, experience and other stats up slowly in order to build up some confidence which is more important than most think."

"-But the incident with the Ursai pretty much shot us in the face, telling us that **I** need to be stronger quicker or I'm going to die sooner or later" he cut in with a grim face.

She nodded agreeing with his words. That was something she was worried about and it came true. Pyrrha would really rather not want to bury this person in front of her, someone who placed his trust in her because she was holding back in training him and intentionally or not stunted his growth because of her own beliefs.

Seeing the grimace on his face she waited as he asked, "So what train of training do you think I need?"

"Three bound I suppose. First is training to get your Power, Endurance and Stamina up which will mainly be building up muscles I suppose. Second is training to your Speed, Perception and Reaction Speed up which will consist of a lot of running and dodging at the same time-"

She ignored the shudder that went through his body.

"And finally the last and probably most difficult training for you is getting your Dexterity up. Namely, hand-eye coordination armed or unarmed combat which will be sparring against me all the time to help you develop more skills in using weapons and the likes" she said, "I think it will be best if you know how to use a weapon even if it's not your primary source of strength in battle."

"Yeah" he rolled his eyes, "Aura Soldiers might be kick-ass right now but I know that I'll eventually run out of Aura sooner or later. Knowing how to use a weapon despite sucking at these things looks to be the right way to do this."

"Good" she clapped her hands, "Unless you wish to do something else, we may start your training now."

She certainly did _not_ enjoy the look of fear on Jaune's face. That would be just rude…

-o-

Leaving Pyrrha to work on the details of his new training reign that by the looks of it would either make him strong in record time or kill him (he wasn't sure yet), Jaune started to walk towards a certain part of the Guild building that only Hunters had access to. For this town, this area was quite small compared to larger towns and cities but at the same time it was the most important of the town for Hunters.

The Skill Library.

The collection of skills that all Hunters can learn that are separated into several sections or rather just two. The most curious part of the library is not the range of skills that they display but rather that the 'Library' itself is not physical in nature but rather a connection to each Hunter's A.U.R.A system that allows them access in this certain area.

The first section was where most Hunters went to and were the place where the 'Active Skills' as Pyrrha called them were placed. These were the skills that gave the best effects in exchange for using quite a bit of Aura to do so.

And at the same time, they were the most effective tools that a Hunter could have against the Grimm and as a result were always used to give anyone an edge in battle. However at the same time there were restrictions to this side of the library. For one, your Hunter Rank was the sole dependent on what you can learn in this section of the Skill Library.

A higher Hunter Rank meant you were stronger than those with a lower Rank and at the same time probably lasted long enough to know what not to do with certain skills that may or may not blow up when used incorrectly or pass them to people not ready to learn them resulting in their deaths via ego and arrogance.

There was a lot of trust when you pass down a skill from a higher rank to a Hunter of a lower rank that they can access. God knows how Gred managed to give him the Aura Soldier skill when it was restricted to only B rank Hunters or higher, or people with enough money to convince someone to let them learn the ridiculously hard to learn skill.

Still, this was not the section of the Skill Library that he was heading for today. He was heading towards the much emptier and at the same time, much more expansive second section of the Skill Library which consisted of the 'Passive Skills' which were all the small and yet useful skills that the first second of the library did not have.

However Jaune did not have any delusions to learn perhaps a dozen different passive skills to argument himself and hope that it would make him better than all other Hunters that did not do so. For one, passive skills were a lot harder and easier to learn. Harder because they were aura application that did not cost you aura to use and easier because after learning them, you really didn't need to use them actively to train them.

Besides that, there was the little fact that sometimes, passive skills cancelled each other out resulting in net loss when learning too many of them. But even so, there were many rookie Hunters that wanted to learn as many skills as possible 'just in case'. That was not how it worked. In total, there were four ranks of proficiency that every skill had.

 **Novice** proficiency was when you first get the skill no matter what; often the costs of using the skill outweighed the benefits.

 **Adept** proficiency was when you get used to the skill and the costs are around the same as the benefits.

 **Expert** proficiency was when you learn more applications of the skill and when the benefits of using the skill outweigh any costs.

Finally there was **Master** proficiency which meant that there is nothing else to learn about the skill, nothing more to improve on.

But at the same time the A.U.R.A system with each proficiency rank display something new and different each time a skill 'ranks up' from the previous proficiency. It was common knowledge that a skill of a higher proficiency was worth 2-3 skills that did something similar of a lower proficiency.

That was one of the reasons why he spent so much time mastering the Aura Soldier skill. It was quite literally worth over 20 times any skills that did anything remotely similar at novice proficiency. And it is with that reasoning that quality is often better than sheer quantity because sooner or later, you'll run out of 'quantity' to match up to 'quality'.

For example, a movement skill in the passive category of skills may allow for a boost of 1% in Speed at Novice proficiency. This boost would be increased to 5% on Adept proficiency, 15% on Expert proficiency and finally 25% in Master proficiency. This alone makes it apparent that learning one movement skill and getting it to Master proficiency is much more effective than learning 25 Novice proficiency skills.

Not to mention the other benefits of ranking up skills that can be reduced down to 'extra features' that are unique to each person if only predictable somewhat. One person may get an extra feature that reduces friction when moving at high speeds; another at the same time would get one that makes them harder to spot and so on. All of this only adds to how greater proficiency skills are worth more than many lower proficiency skills.

Besides that, skills gain 'experience' the more you use them which are used to allow them to rank up. If you have two skills that does the same time, the 'experience' will be split between them evenly causing you to need double the time to rank two skills up which gives less benefits than one skill ranking up.

But more than that, the most damning thing that prevented Hunters from learning as many passive skills as possible to increase their chances of success was the sole fact that Passive Skills' nature are like instincts. Passive skills are the instinctive use of aura in application to the body. Using the above example, there are several types of movement skills that could have the same results but with much different methods.

One movement skill may have the application of using long strides to cover as much distance as possible per step.

While another movement skill may have the application of using shorter strides but at burst amounts to have the same results.

Both in the end may end up with a 25% boost in Speed either way but you could not have both at the same time. The method they achieve this was simply too different to be compatible to be used like that.

Most passive skills as a result are simply different combinations of methods to gain the same effect in the end as a result of that. Certain passive skills were compatible with each other were paired off while those which were not were ignored. Due to all of this, there were 'builds' to which previous Hunters learnt and passed down their experiences with certain skills together to help others after them find more effective combinations.

 _'For Pyrrha to have 8 passive skills at once…'_ Jaune pondered, _'The combination of skills she had must be really effective for it to have that many skills working together…though they may just affect different parts of the body.'_

He didn't recall her telling him which types she got but that would've been an invasion of her privacy either way if he tried to inquire too much.

Though at the same time Jaune started to recount the possible areas individual passive skills could affect without interfering with each other. There were the eyes, arms, legs…yeah he really had no idea.

"Guess I have to ask Pyrrha later…" he mumbled picking up the skill category book while sighing.

Because passive skills were so difficult to make work together, not many had a lot of them unless they knew what they were doing. Learning a passive skill was one thing – it was more using aura daily to configure your body a certain way – but unlearning them was a completely different problem.

To unlearn a passive skill, an instinct…you needed to do so to make sure you don't react instinctively the same way. Pain is often the most common, successful and traumatic method to do so and nobody wanted to go through it after doing it once else seeing the result of one.

Jaune had…seen the results of one when he was still a rookie two years ago. The results…were not pretty but not as much as what would happen to the person if he didn't have those passive skills removed from him. Conflicting aura inside the body was a bad thing, a really bad thing that would end up with the person dying painfully at best and something explosive at worse.

Pyrrha who has 4 active skills and 8 passive skills is on the high end where number of skills are concerned but at the same time, Jaune couldn't help but think that she trained a _lot_ to get those skills high enough for her to multiple others. Not to mention either _really_ skilled or incredibly lucky to have that many passive skills working together.

He was more inclined to believe the former than the latter in any case.

"What kind of skill should I get" he wondered while flipping through the catalogue.

There were a couple of areas that he wanted and knew he needed to focus on seeing that he wasn't a direct fight like Pyrrha. Therefore it's natural that his own skill-set will be different than hers and that she could only advise him a bit on this.

For one, he needed to react faster which meant he needed both a passive skill to actually be able to react to things in time but also a tracking type skill.

Another thing is that he needed to move faster which meant a movement type skill though what kind he wasn't sure. He could either get one to increase the distance between him and the enemy or one that allowed him to evade better using close movements. He wanted to have both options which meant finding two skills that did both and did not conflict with each other or just one that did both.

Finally he needed something to increase his defence in case he couldn't dodge. There were a number of skills that did just that as it seemed but Jaune didn't know which one would be correct to learn in this case.

"At this rate I might as well leave now before I waste more of my time" Jaune started flipping through some of the skills that could be useful in making sure he could dodge attacks better.

There were a couple that were useful outright but limited in their own ways.

 **Water Curve Evasion:** Allows for last second evasion by acting like water and passively countering all attacks.

 **Wasp Evade Movement:** Allows for evasion via small bursts of speed though limited in how much strain your legs can take.

 **Monkey Defence Leap:** Unpredictable in nature, there is no set defence to avoid attacks but rather everything you can do physically.

 **Striding Waterfall Movements:** Side steps are one of the most fundamental dodging tactics. This takes it beyond that by using minimal amount of aura to slide in any direction to dodge.

 **Mountain Step Dodge:** Distance is the key for evasion here. Moving at blindingly fast speeds, you can almost instantly take a 'step' away from attacks allowing for safety.

Beyond just this, there were a couple dozen more passive skills related to dodging in some shape or form. Still, as he went down the list, most of them were simply recombination of previous skills of the same type…each slightly different than the other.

But in all, it dodging related skills seemed to be closely related to movement skill which were split either in close dodge or long dodge to which the former is further split between _how_ to dodge, each with their own effectiveness and use. Jaune had no idea which one would be useful or not but he was more inclined to _not_ getting close to the things that would kill him.

"I think…this 'Mountain Step Dodge' seems to be the right choice for me…and _maybe_ the 'Wasp Evade Movement' as well…if they can be combined that is" he said to himself.

Entering the request for access to these two skills through his A.U.R.A system while imputing his Hunter ID and password and so on, it took Jaune a minute for both to be displayed through a hologram screen in front of his face.

"Let's see…"

From what he could tell, both skills were remarkably similar thankfully in the approach. They were based around using the legs boosted by aura – hopefully Aura Enhancement will help with this – to take a 'step' in a direction to dodge an attack.

The main different between the two is the Wasp Evade Movement is based around _one_ step to dodge in short distance while Mountain Dodge Step is based around using a series of 'steps' in a direction consecutively to display the same results but with a large distance mainly to reduce strain on the leg used to pivot.

"This might actually work" Jaune continued to speak to himself.

Well this certainly solved one of his issues. Still, he was _not_ looking forward to the conditioning and training involved in gaining these two skills. He would need to talk to Pyrrha in helping him with this.

"Thank god the Guild isn't stingy enough to make us _pay_ for learning these skills. That would've been a nightmare to deal with."

-o-

"You want to learn two movement skills at once?" Pyrrha asked with an eyebrow raised to the point it questioned whether he deserved to live or not. To be fair, he would be questioning someone if they wanted to do the same.

After all, quantity could never match up to quality…unless it was overwhelming quantity, case with the Grimm, still, it would be a foolish choice to stunt your growth for something like this so early on. But at the same time, he as Jaune Arc had a good reason to choose these two skills at the same time.

"Yeah" he nodded, "Both skills are remarkably similar to each other and cover each other's' weakness if I'm able to learn them both. One of them is about short distance dodging while the other is about long distance dodging."

"I'm still not seeing the point of learning both?"

I grinned, "Oh but the thing is that both skills use the same _method_ but in different amounts to get the same result to evade from a short or long distance at will. And if I manage to do both at the same time, I could possibly make a new skill or something close to it."

More so than Active Skills, Passive Skills were all about experimentation. With the right combination you may create a whole new skill which would be registered by the A.U.R.A system and therefore available to everyone else meaning humanity was potentially stronger due to it.

That is if you actually give them your new skill for cash. And the amount isn't that much if you hadn't somehow created something completely new or innovative. Besides that, not many people _like_ having other people see and use their hard work so…

There are a surprisingly amount of creativity that is hidden in the world. Jaune only hoped that his action is going to be one of them.

"But at the same time I figured that _someone_ already combined the two skills or did something similar enough" he continued while shrugging, "Haven't seen such a skill that combined the two in the Skill Library."

"Jaune" Pyrrha patiently said, "Learning an Active skill is relatively _easy_. Despite some struggling by doing so, it's more because they have trouble externalising Aura outside their bodies. Passive skills are the opposite; it's all about internalising your Aura in the way you want."

She gulped, "And for you to actually learn one of the most straining externalised Aura skills out there not to mention you _easily_ learnt Aura Enhancement and Aura Charge in mere _minutes_ …well, it might take you _months_ to learn what others takes weeks or days to."

"So" he frowned, "We don't know how long it might take without trying. It'll be a lot of hard work but a lot of things take a lot of hard work. Besides this is something that may help me survive Grimm in the future."

Tapping her foot, his partner started to pace left and right for a few minutes in deep thought. He wasn't sure what was going in her head but in the end he knew that she wanted the best for him. If anything, Pyrrha was sincere enough to not go behind people's backs.

"I'll…help you on this Jaune" she finally said, "However; do not expect me to help you much more for your skills. _That_ is something that only you can decide and venture on. I can only advise minority for you if you make this decision to learn these skills…at the same time."

Jaune smiled. In the end, even when scowling at him for doing something like this, Pyrrha still said she would help him no matter what. Oh he knew what learning these two passive skills would do to him. He would curse and scream but in the end, his body would _change_ to allow him to use it.

"Stop smiling, I'm not pleased with you right now Jaune" she scowled, "I am not pleased by your willingness to make me make sure that you are in pain for your goals."

"No pain no gain" he pressed on.

"You will not be saying that after enduring day after day of conditioning of your body to learn said passive skills as long as it takes. It's even worse by your insistent to learning _two_ of them at the same time" she sighed with tiredness.

He really grimaced to that this time. It wasn't like he was avoidant towards any kind of pain, but the sheer amount that Pyrrha was telling him that he would experience was not a great sigh for the future.

Still, if Jaune Arc was going to be stronger, this was something he needed to do. Plus conditioning his body towards these two passive skills might as well as be a part of his evasion training that Pyrrha really hinted towards.

He just hoped that he would overcome this…

…..

…..

She had no idea what her leader was thinking.

"Pyrrha…stop… _help_ …"

Really, she did not know at all.

" _God_ this _hurts_."

She rolled her eyes and fired another rubber round into his backside prompting him to jolt his body up and force himself back into another run. A few hours ago, she had agreed to up his training in light of his lack of…survivability save his semblance which wasn't exactly a great indication that he could survive in the harsh world ahead.

Therefore she had intended for his training to train his ability to evade attacks, endure attacks and finally to know how to use a weapon in the end. What she said about his stats was more so he got how significant this training would be towards him and his future. Pyrrha really didn't care much about the A.U.R.A system save how it helps her determine which areas she was lacking and that she needed training to fix it.

The skills section was more interesting to her as it showed a great analysis of how Aura worked in the body.

Through great study, she by the age of 17 managed to learn 4 Active Skills and 8 Passive Skills in the end. Two of which she taught Jaune who had a surprising amount of talent when it came to externalising his aura which was as expected for someone who mastered the Aura Soldier skill.

He had some trouble with the Aura Enhancement skill rather than the Aura Charge skill but that was too easily corrected causing her to believe that Jaune had a good amount of talent that rivals or surpasses hers when he knows what to do.

However at the same time she worried. Passive skills were nothing like Active skills in the regards to how to learn them. For one, while learning Active skills were relatively 'easy' which was why many Hunters started out with using them; Passive skills were more ingrain with the body than most thought.

It was painful to learn a passive skill. To even learn one, you had to forcefully not only change your body but also your aura to fit what you wanted it to do no matter what. But at the same time it wasn't as bad as some may make it be. If it was then she wouldn't certainty learn 8 of them in total and she was proof enough that with enough hard work, results can happen.

However half of her passive skills were not that well known and did not cause her much pain but rather discomfort to learn them. Better metabolism, stronger skeleton, more flexible muscles and better eyesight were simply minor skills that made a Hunter _better_ in small and yet useful ways and she only needed to suffer half her childhood for them to set in while feeling that she was wearing a…skin rather than feel comfortable in her body.

Unfortunately she would not be able to bestow Jaune with them since these changes took _years_ to complete...unless he was willing to feel the pain again?

On the other hand, the passive skills that he could learn in a matter of _months_ usually were also the more painful ones as well. They were in all, allowed much greater flexibility with her body, converting her flesh into someone better to conduct aura, enhanced situational awareness and quicker and stronger nerves to react faster which were _painful_ to get. Like pulling muscles but constantly with no recovery in sight with the passive skills involving her nerves like _fire_ all across her body. From her experience, Pyrrha could easily say how daunting it was to see someone learn a skill like this and more so experiencing it herself.

Still, learning them allowed her with an edge and combined with her frankly overpowered semblance in this day and age where metal were used by all Huntsmen and Huntresses and it was easy to see where the _Invincible Girl_ came from.

She would be able to teach him these passive skills in particular when his body was strong enough to endure the pain.

Case…the sight in front of her.

" _Why did I want to do this?!_ " Jaune moaned once more as she checked and corrected his posture and stance before he once more attempted to condition his legs to be fit in using the skills he wanted to learn.

He tripped once more as his leg muscles strained, ripped in parts and reforged themselves using aura to recover quickly. Truthfully the amount of pain her leader was in was more because of how quickly his aura healed him.

"Because you're too stubborn to not" she replied easily while helping him up before he started to attempt to continue to train himself more.

' _At least I'm sure his Endurance stat in particular will be trained thanks to this. Maybe a bit of Speed as well at this rate'_ she mused.

Pyrrha shook her head at the sight.

Of course her leader _had_ to choose one of the more effective and therefore one of the more painful passive skills to learn. From what she could tell, the passive skill would _greatly_ increase his evasion skills but at the same time was highly difficult to learn. How he didn't know that stronger skills were often harder to learn was beyond her.

It might allow him a leap or two in sheer ability to evade attacks but it would be a while for him to get used to the pain to use it properly. The fact that the description of each skill revealed that it caused a lot of pressure and pain to use consecutively should be enough warning that learning it would not be an easy challenge.

And the fact that he was trying to learn _both_ at the same time? Insane. She could see the connective between the skills but at the same time the core concepts of the skills were different. One was moving deeper inside enemy defence to avoid attacks with minimal distance while the other was about moving away as far as possible from the enemy to avoid attacks.

Despite both skills – with their horrible names – using the same concept to achieve the effect they had – multiple bursts of steps _was_ effective in concept at least – but it was like learning how to move forward and backwards with the same movements….

Not impossible but extremely painful and difficult to learn nonetheless.

But Jaune was not exactly the smartest or had the most common sense it seemed. From the little over a month she had experienced with him, she learnt he was mostly clueless about most things, a good cook and frankly not that there when it came to matters outside of tactics unless it came to his word as an Arc.

Though it might explain why and how he seemed to have learnt and mastered the Aura Soldier skill when usually it is those in their 20s that learn it after many years of study.

Part of her felt that he was too dumb and too stubborn to simply stop when it was clearly hurting him. But despite all of this, Pyrrha Nikos would never want another kind of leader. Honestly without deception towards her was a rare thing these days.

* * *

 **A/N: So writing this chapter made me realised that I somehow remade RWBY into a literal RPG world. Serious, I have stats and skills and everything that revolved around them makes this seem like some sort of game if not for the obvious implication of what Grimm are and what it means for them to _slowly_ whittle humanity down to just 4 Kingdoms. **

**Anyway, stats are kinda easy to explain in this AU world. If you had the technology to instantly and actively scan the bodies of Hunters what would you do to benefit them? Stats are the physical representation of what their bodies can do. Active Skills on the other hand are the aura representation in comparison. Active Skills are the things that cost MP in RPGs, here they are Aura based actions that you actively have to use aura to achieve. Nothing like the seeming physical boost that comes with aura, that's all unconscious and probably doesn't take much to do.**

 **Passive skills on the other hand are...well frankly exactly what you think in games except it's more like _conditioning_ than anything can _condition_ your body to be more flexible, you can condition your body so your bones are stronger and so on. They don't affect Aura in consumption at all but are a physical effect on your body and how it works. Sure you can use Aura to make yourself tougher, faster and so on but you're not actively using it to cause the effect which makes it passive. And this leads you to want _more_ to make yourself stronger.  
**

 **Except there is a cost in wanting quantity over quality. This isn't a gamer fic which more than often have their characters _stack_ passive skills like there's no end. In real life, that's not how it works. **

**You can have one passive that reduces say air fiction in front of you and another that boosts your legs to increase speed in some form. You can't just stack another passive that _also_ reduces air friction or increases leg strength just like that and expect for it to go all perfectly fine. It's like saying you plan on training yourself for the 100 metres sprint and long jump at the same time and then say you want to train for swimming and parkour all at the same time and expect from both to effect the other more positively than you training in a single area. But it's actually worse in this RWBY AU. **

**It's like training yourself to block an attack rather than dodge and to dodge left rather than right and to roll rather than to dodge right ALL at once. Yeah, you're not going anywhere with that kind of instinct in your body. Basically lots of different skills can make you a jack of all trades but barely competent. Not a master, not even an expert in this world. Quality basically in this scenario where a higher proficiency ranking of a skill may lead to it gaining the same effect as another or several other skills make quantity quite useless if you're doing it wrong. What's the point of having...a dozen low quality engines in your car when you can have _one_ really high quality one that worked just fine? The concept is similar here. _Sure_ you can have two engines but in most cases you rather just have one. Less issues with it. **

**So yeah, no Jaune is NOT going to get a lot of skills and become a BAMF. That's _Pyrrha's_ job with her 8 passive skills at the start of this story. I'm pretty sure the only reason I had Pyrrha as Jaune's partner at the beginning of this story is because she's the only reasonable person in RWBY that would have a reason to intentionally partner with him. Ren and Nora? Have each other. Blake? Currently Terrorist and probably would dislike him. Weiss? Haha no. Yang? Rather protect her sister than a stranger. Ruby? Yeah...in this world, with teams being optional and all she would let him down to not get him killed. **

**But Pyrrha? Yeah that sort of works seeing that she actually a relatively nice person that is _extremely_ patient with Jaune.  
**

 **So yeah, while in the future Jaune might have other members in his team, none of the others would've been his first...unless I literally wrote some plot for them to be so. Note, in the future there will NEVER be Team JPNR and RWBY in one super party. Ever. That's just bad plot for them to be like that in this setting where there is nothing (Beacon) to allow that so unless chance and plot happens.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: I own nothing of RWBY which belongs to Rooster Teeth and the late Monty Owm.**

* * *

 **Chapter 5**

 **Grimm Tidings (Part 1)**

In many ways, Jaune contemplates; he was not suited for a sword…or any other weapon in general. However, he was surprisingly decent with a shield but still not with a weapon used to attack others. He knew this from a long time ago and because of it, practically abandoned the use of weapons in favour of learning the Aura Soldier skill. In a way, his pride wasn't enough to make him stubborn enough to stick with the sword and shield combo he tried to train in during his childhood.

Picking that style up of fighting again after years of rust over the already insignificant skill he had with it was like pouring salt over his wounds. Bitter but he could deal with it. But he had long since thrown away pride in favour of getting stronger with Pyrrha. Against or with someone so overwhelming compared to yourself, there was little need for pride and more need of determination and training to catch up with her.

As much as he didn't want to, Jaune knew that if he didn't pick up a weapon sooner or later and depended too much on his quite limited Aura Soldier skill that depended on his Aura reserves, he was going to die due to his lacking skill.

Not that it mattered against someone like Pyrrha who somehow managed to combine sword-spear-shield-rifle combat into one and made it look _easy_ as she beat down her opponents – namely him – repeatedly in the name of training and pushing him further ahead to making him someone stronger than before.

"Jaune, you would want to tilt the tip of the blade ahead a bit if you want to do a stabbing attack."

"Got it."

"Now…I'm going to attack again. Try to last as long as you can" she advised.

Hearing those words, he grunted before doing as she said with the sword in his right hand and a shield on his left hand being also angled up as his knees bent and as his mind prepared for another attack from his partner that was equally too strong for him to block and too fast for him to track.

Thankfully she let him on easy for the first strike at least. She charged straight at him.

 _Bang~!_

The first blow was a warning shot to make sure he was serious about this. Jaune would never make that mistake to let his guard down against Pyrrha in a spar ever since the first and last time he ever did so.

 _Bang~!_

With another grunt, he felt his shield get impacted by something like a hammer as he forced his body to endure and push forward in order to not imbalance himself and get himself knocked on his ass once more today.

Silently plotting his next move, Jaune really wished he could use his Aura Soldier or even his Aura Enhancement or Charge skills but this training wasn't about using them. This was about fighting even without anything to back him up besides his equipment and skill with them.

As Pyrrha's body blurred with speed, his eyes was having more and more trouble keeping track of her but still he readied his shield most of all, slacking his stance with his sword in return. However that seemed to be the wrong choice as a rapid fire of attack _rammed_ into him at multiple angles where he was barely capable of keeping up

 _Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!_

Although he suspected his partner was slowing down enough to _just_ let him react in time, Jaune did not particularly give up. No matter how much stronger and faster Pyrrha was to him, he still had a way to possibly defeat her.

…And all it took was a bit of strategy, a good deal of tactics and a hell of a lot of _luck_.

' _One…'_

 _Bang!_

 _'Two…'_

 _Bang!_

 _'THREE!'_

Pyrrha's weapon came down to slash once more at Jaune at an angle that he would've once more strained to block. All her attacks after a while did so. This was training after all and because of that, he could predict her slightly enough that he knew where she was going to strike before she even knew.

A shield tilted to the right? She would attack to the left. Shield prepared to block from below? She would use a high-attack.

Therefore it was simply for Jaune Arc to move his sword that he had never used to strike against her once in this battle to immediately attack and push forward at _that_ moment to which he could(?) tell that her guard was lowered a bit more than usual.

" _Haaaa_!"

His low-quality iron sword countered her high-quality shapeshifting weapon and would've possibly disarmed her, else parried or even deflected the strike away from him slightly if he had a bit more power and she didn't have a cheat-like semblance to use at these moments to make any strategies he used _useless_.

 _Everything_ became a blur in the next second. The sword in his right hand was immediately knocked from his hand quicker than he could response, his left knee was kicked causing his body to buckle and a shield rammed into his _face_ knocking him back a good distance before he rolled backwards to a stop before silence became everywhere.

" _Shit._ I'm so _sorry_ Jaune!" she cried out not noticing that she just swore.

He groaned in pain in response.

Feeling hands on him, Jaune didn't resist the red-head worry over him and simply focused on his aura to try to head the numerous bruises he got when Pyrrha for a single _second_ got serious. With any of their skills and armed only with their weapons of choice and a shield, it took her that long to take him out.

He really didn't know whether to be happy that his partner was so strong or sad that he was so weak. It wasn't like his manliness was being threatened constantly by standing near her…or the fact that her abs were way better than his…

…Really.

"Damn you're really fast…and strong as well" he coughed out before grinning, "Still, I managed to get you serious for a single second even if you didn't mean to."

"Honestly Jaune" she huffed, "It's not about how strong you are compared to me but rather how strong you are compared to before. And I can easily say that you improved leaps and bounds."

Rubbing the bruise that was his face, he replied, "Yeah, hadn't really trained my body that much during those 2 years without you. I was focusing more on mastering my Aura Soldier skill and everything else was secondary compared to that."

"True but I find your…lack of training during that time…worrying. You could've easily been made an E rank Huntsman within a year with any kind of training and would've been halfway to D rank by now."

"Pyrrha, I'm _horrible_ with a sword and barely decent with a shield" he rolled his eyes," That and I spent most of that time doing the lowest ranked missions without risk in order to gain funds to feed myself."

With a distant look he added, "If I took Crocea Mors with me back then…I think I would've pawn it off to get some more money even though it's a family heirloom and a decent weapon, if a bit outdated right now compared to most shape-shifting weapons that seem to always include guns in some form or another."

"But you didn't."

"Only because I didn't have it on hand to sell" he retorted, "Part of me also wondered if I took it with me that I would've abandoned focusing on my Aura Soldier skill and just went out trying to kill Grimm…and end up dying in the process."

"Is that why you seemed so obsessive with that skill?" Pyrrha inquired with a curious gaze though at the same time was worried as well.

Twitching a bit he scoffed, "I was _not_ obsessed with the skill!"

"It took you _two_ years for you to master it" she deadpanned, "Other have taken at least a decade… _minimum_ to do the same. If that's not obsessing than my creepy stalkers back at home were all just taking casual strolls as they accidentally bumped into me."

"…."

Jaune was silent for that moment before deciding to put the book in his mouth with his next comment, "You have stalkers?"

Pausing for a suffering second, the _Invincible Girl_ gritted out, " _Yes_ and they are _creepy_ to deal with. It's like they somehow managed to combine the durability of Aura users and the tracking skills of Grimm in hunting my secrets down."

He could see the girl shudder in that thought and let out a whine of sympathy for her. He had seen some of his sisters' stalkers and they weren't at all easy to deal with. Some were just more 'curious' than others but some, the worse kind broke the law and a lot of privacy for their own 'needs'. More than once did a number of dust rounds were shot every time one managed to bypass the house's (non-lethal) security measures

"Still" he assured her, "They can't find you right now."

"- _Yet_ " she hissed.

He chuckled to that trying to put some humour in the conversation, "Who would've thought the _great_ Pyrrha Nikos had such a weakness."

"You mean like the obsession you've been having that skill of yours? Don't think I don't know that you previously made 'female' models that were suspiciously lacking in clothing" she retorted hotly.

A deep red blush grew up from his neck, "How did-I was experimenting to see if there was any difference in using that or the usual make model I normally use! You know as well as I that the Aura Soldier skill is _extremely_ versatile and even one change can unbalance an enemy for even a split second!"

"Grimm don't get distracted like that!"

"I wasn't talking about the Grimm! Thieves, bandits, _other_ Hunters! Plenty of people that would pause even for a moment that I can take advantage of" he listed.

"You do realise that there are more Huntresses than Huntsmen?" she asked, "That was one of the reasons why the gender neutral term 'Hunter' is more commonly used these days than 'Huntsmen'. And by that logic you need more skimpy 'male models' for distractions."

"…."

Jaune glared at his partner for a good while for that. _That_ was not a line of thought he wanted to even consider. Then he decided to groan before rubbing his forehead, leading towards a pinch of his nose before he just sighed in the end.

"I really don't like fighting you in any way or form aside from outside of sparring. Too much ammunition you have against me even only after 3 months."

"And I really don't like how you are _sometimes_ like a brick when it comes to emotions…but _men_ " she shrugged.

"Me and my big mouth…"

"That and I'm getting a bit more stressed lately. While I'm perfectly fine helping you train, finding other potential people to even temporarily party with in this location is…difficult" she added.

"Are Sky and Dove _still_ bothering you?" he asked, definitely not in a good mood right now. Among the Hunters that resided in town, those two were probably the worse two when it came to all the taunting and comments towards him behind his back.

That and more than anything else, they were both from rich families which meant better gear, access to tutors that helped them with their skills and also a lot of influence and connections with people that they can party with because of the _chance_ that their wealth will spill over to them.

And because of all of this, they were generally too arrogant for their own good, even though, as much as he didn't like to admit, they _were_ the best Hunters in town after Pyrrha with Sky being the only D rank Huntsman and Dove being a E rank that is verging on D rank soon as well.

"You do realise that one ass kicking is enough for them to back off right?"

Shaking her head she replied, "But that's not going to fix the problem. If anything, that would only antagonist them which will lead to retaliation towards me and you in an extension and we don't want that."

He scowled to that but didn't counter her to her words.

"I really need to get stronger don't I?"

Placing her hand on his shoulder she smiled at him, "You are plenty strong right now. I suspect by the end of the year you can probably take on D rank and match _me_ if you use your Aura Soldier skill."

"That and you were probably hoping to continue to ride your way to success with that skill. Most users of that skill are capable of taking on someone of a single rank higher for a good reason" she rolled her eyes while adding that comment as well when she saw him grin to that.

He chuckled, "Can't say I hadn't thought of that. The skill is damn powerful…if it works as intended but it's more like _I'm_ encouraged to train myself more the moment I found out that my own physical condition transfers onto them."

"The skill is really still only third-rate because I'm still a third-rate Huntsman" he continued before allowing himself to be pulled up by Pyrrha.

"Still, you're a lot better than we began. I remember you weren't even able to hold onto a sword properly!" she exclaimed causing Jaune to laugh openly in return, "Still, what seems to be your greatest strength no matter what is your mind."

She poked his forehead with mirth from her eyes to her smile.

This time, he was the one who huffed as he said, "Yeah I get it. You have been saying that for a while now along with Gred. ' _You are dead stupid in one way but damn smart in another_ ' or so he says."

"A wise man indeed" she nodded fully in agreement.

"HEY!"

"It's not my fault that I have to also tutor you in things that you should've already known and studied for."

"I was busy!"

"Doing what?"

"…Being happy I was actually a Huntsman" he muttered before saying, "Yeah. Nope. Let's _not_ go into my depressing topics immediately after training. Anyway, how did I really do this time?"

The teasing look disappeared from Pyrrha's face immediately as he said that, "Pretty good for your current stats. Despite moving at speeds that could surprise D rank Hunters, you managed, if barely, to track my movements though that may be more because you've gotten used to the patterns to how I attack."

He laughed nervously, "Yeah…you _tend_ to attack in the direct opposite direction to where my shield is. It gives me a small window to actually manage to react in time you know. I mean it was a bit _easy_ to know where you would attack."

"I see" she deadpanned, "I will correct that. Expect to be surprised when trying to predict me next time."

He paled. She was not going to hold back on sparring training next time and he would probably be bruised black and back by the time it ended.

" _Shit_."

"Don't worry" she smiled brightly, "See it as a sign that you're strong enough that I need to change my training for you in order for you to improve further now. The facts that your stats are numerically a quarter of my own and you are yet able of lasting against me for so long proves you are capable of holding your own."

"Some don't see it that way…" he thought back at the 'casual' snipes that were 'quiet' as he passed by some other Hunters. All of them Huntsmen and in their teens like he and Pyrrha were.

Pyrrha deadpanned before reassuring him, "They're jealous. One because you managed to partner with me when I refused all of them and two because _they_ can see your improvements and already are stronger than a few of them with such a short amount of training."

"Really?" he raised an eyebrow to that.

"You took…three months to achieve E rank which from any other person usually takes a _year_ " she pointed out, "Though most of that time is spent building up the body from civilian levels to a proper Hunter level as well as get a better hang on using Aura and any skills they want to learn."

He thought on that and shrugged. He was honestly on par with the non-aura guards that were placed around town. Despite all the uses of Aura, there were some 'negative' side-effects that some people didn't want to deal with. One was a high metabolism and the attraction of Grimm in small ways.

Being a Hunter meant that you were a _target_ for Grimm for the rest of your life and some people didn't want to trade the benefits of Aura of being in danger almost constantly until they die – most likely via Grimm – so they don't use Aura. Doesn't mean they are weak at any rate. Most guards are capable enough of taking out any F-E rank Hunters with enough skill and numbers.

That said, Jaune was pretty sure that the old guard leader for the town was more skilled in combat than Pyrrha. Age and lack of aura going through his body didn't mean that he was weak at all. However at the same time, there were some guards that had use of Aura and yet were not Hunters though they consisted of around half the forces in total.

"Speaking of skills…" she continued.

He shook his head on response, "Still not qualified for it to become a passive skill. I _can_ use it as an active, I checked that out using Aura Enhancement to boost my body …but that's not what I'm looking for."

Rubbing his legs that were _still_ sometimes aching in pain when he moved them…or stopped moving them which was basically always, he wasn't sure whether he was making progress or was just killing his body slowly through his training. But still, there were _some_ benefits to this type of training.

His Speed stat in particular increased massively higher than all his other stats thanks to it however.

"You know…it's completely your fault that you decided to learn such a difficult passive skill. Passive skills that are equal to active ones are notoriously known for being insanely difficult painful to learn" she pipped up.

"I _know_."

From what research he made in the recent months, he had learnt that passive skills weren't exactly like active skills in how they are ranked amongst each other. First, there were the really minor passive skills that most pick up at a bunch to generally make life better if they intended not to get far in a Hunter's career but were dead easy to learn. These usually ranged to insignificant things that aura already aided in such as bladder, good teeth and being less drowsy on waking up.

No one really wanted to learn them if they wanted to get far in their careers. More than often, these 'minor' passive skills interfered with the growth of other skill and most of these effects came with the perks of aura either way.

Though at the same time, there _was_ a reason why most Huntsmen and even more Huntresses looked like supermodels and _young_ supermodels even when they were actually middle aged or even older. And…at the same time _this_ perk of aura was probably the main reason why there were more Huntresses than Huntsmen in general and also the cause of the creation of minor passive skills that aren't exactly battle worthy.

A bit sad when you think about it…

The decent passive skills that made a good enough difference and took some time to learn were the some of the ones that Pyrrha told him about. These were the ones that changed the structure of the body more than the above in that some possible advents included better flexibility, better muscles, better blood circulation that while considered minor enough, were decent for decent Hunters to pick up.

Then there were the relatively exceptional passive skills that were painful to learn but had a good deal of benefits. From the stories his partner told him, she had experience things that were worse than _puberty_ but at the same time, her skeleton was stronger, her nerves allowed her to react so much faster than normal and so on that made a _real_ difference in battle that you would want if you could.

So naturally these were also the type of passive skills that took too much time for me to start on and expect good results for my time, effort and pains.

And finally there were the cream of the crop. The _extremely_ exceptional passive skills that would be extremely painful to learn also only have a so-so chance of succeeding in the first place. They were also called the aura-less active skills as well. _These_ passive skills gave the same effect as active skills without the costs of aura. Naturally they were extremely craved for…if you ignore the amount of pain, effort and good chance you'll end up _not_ getting it.

The two skills he was trying to learn fell into this category.

And Jaune wondered why Pyrrha looked at him like he was insane or a 'bit' mad to try to not only learn but combine the two skills together. The amount of…'training' (I.e. _PAIN_ ) needed to achieve this was high. Really, really high to the point that he would've gave up if not for his pride which like before, damned him too many times.

Basically he didn't want to look as if he made a mistake in front of Pyrrha. That was why he didn't at all, not once tell her to stop training him to achieve this goal of his to get both skills. It was through his pride and later word as an Arc that he _would_ learn both skills even if it killed him.

But at the moment, his _body_ could not take the strain without the active aid of Aura. 2 months of intense specialised training and he had almost nothing to show for it aside from higher stats relating to Speed.

Jaune sighed wondering what direction his life was taking ever since he met Pyrrha. It seemed that he would either grow strong enough to fight with her on even terms else die when she would be unable to save him once more from the enemy. The former would take a long time and the latter he really didn't like. That or he might die from the training itself.

Therefore he did what he could right now. Train, train and _train_ like hell because his semblance made things more complicated with how it connected how strong he was physically to how strong his Aura Soldiers were.

-o-

Spearman-1 like Knight-1 was an Aura Soldier creation of his that he made after a decent amount of time researching spearmanship. The main difference between the two aside the choice of weaponry is that Spearman-1 has less armour and is more agile from the way he controlled them to move. That and the range of his weapon combined with its speed made it much easier to attack without being damaged in battle.

The Knight series Aura Soldiers were fortresses in how they moved. Always steady, always defensive and always ready to take a hit. As a result, they ended up slower than him personally but at the same time better capable of enduring attacks. The Spearman series of Aura Soldiers were the opposite. They needed not to defend because they weren't designed to defence but rather attack.

Always forward, always offensive and always ready to move in a moment was the line of thought he had when designing them. And it worked…for the most part anyway. His lack of skill in spearmanship spilled through to the Spearman Aura Soldiers and it took a while for him to develop them through battles to fix that. Thank god for the AI growth part of the Aura Soldier skill.

Fortunately thanks to this, he now had a somewhat more reliable offence to go with his defence when it came to said skill.

"Should I start to develop a ranged Aura Soldier?" he asked himself. It would be a boon if he actually managed to do so. Despite his previous attempts of doing such a thing (Gunner series), he hadn't gotten the hang of firing aura projectiles from them and using dust, while viable right now is too expensive for him to consider.

Considering his options he admitted, "The main problem would be how it fires things."

Really, there were three ways to do this. The first was to convert the Aura of said Aura Soldier into bullets to be fired out; the second method would be to use dust combined with aura to reduce said costs there in exchange for expenses and then there was the third method he thought of. Buying a gun, rifle or whatever and letting it use _that_ weapon instead of trying to produce on itself to use.

Sure it would be a different kind of expense compared to pure dust alone but in the end it would _also_ mean he would need to buy dust to get effective rounds. Therefore the really only cost-effective method of making a ranged Aura Soldier was to make it so it used the aura it had when created to power the rounds fired.

And unfortunately _that_ wasn't that cost-effective as well. There was a good reason why dust was almost always used in the rounds of ammunition along with a bit of aura to ensure said effects activated on impact. It was a matter of pure logistic where you would normally need to spend…say 10 Aura Units to cause a certain effect to spending 1 Aura Unit along with a bit of Dust to get the same results.

 _Costly_ but at the same time might save your life.

Taking into consideration of how… _effective_ dust seems to be in most things including projectile aura based actions, Jaune figured that he could possibly use Dust to alter the state of his Aura Soldiers to have certain different effects. But at the same time he wasn't at all rich so experimenting with Dust was usually done by the higher ranked Hunters else those from rich families who can spare the expense.

That was one the reasons why the Schnee were the most widely known known Dust users, mainly because they were rich enough to use them in large amounts at a time and two because they owned most of the Dust mines in Remnant.

But at the same time Dust wasn't _that_ expensive to use. Most Hunters used the really low quality dust rounds as part of their ranged attacks almost religiously. It was only when the quality of the dust increase, so does the effect and price of them increased exponentially. And Jaune had a feeling that he wasn't going to get much out of Dust when it came to affecting his Aura Soldiers meaningfully unless it was of a good enough quality.

He bet his semblance would cause this effect to annoy him further.

Still there were some things that were good with his semblance, even if it was only fixing up other problems that came with his semblance to begin with. For one, he found a particularly interesting effect of one of his active skill, Aura Charge when it came with his Aura Soldier skill.

'Normally' using said skill on the other skill would cause a determined boost in capability with the aura construct by the amount of Aura you pumped into it. However, as his semblance decided to screw with said Aura Soldier skill, it also affected how Aura Charge affected the skill.

Dismissing Knight-1 and thus recovering 7.5% of his total Aura reserves, he didn't actually _touch_ Spearman-1, no he already had a _connection_ with it, and he activated the Aura Charge skill and allowed his Aura to flow into the Aura Soldier that was made with 15% of his Aura reserves.

A second later, he felt 15% of his Aura reserves being drained into Spearman-1 causing it to become an Aura Soldier made from 30% of his Aura rather than one being made from 15% without being dismissed and redeployed, saving a small sum of Aura in the process.

"This will be useful" he muttered to himself, "It _will_. I know it…"

In combination with his Aura Soldier skill, there were a lot of options available to him no matter what he wanted to do. In some ways, if not for his semblance screwing with the skill and at the same time limiting the number of them he could at once, he would've been a massive power-house for his rank, even more so since he had seen his Aura reserves massive increase more rapidly.

There was after all, a certain quality in quantity if done right.

"Activate A.U.R.A scan."

 **Name ID: Jaune Arc**

 **Huntsman ID: 341544**

 **Huntsman Rank: E**

 **Stats: [+]**

 **Skills: [+]**

 **Money: 18 007 Lien**

Despite the increase in rank and 2 months passing, he really didn't have that much money to his name right now. Most of it was spent on getting a new sword and shield that alone cost 10 000 Lien a piece each and paying off a quarter of his debt which was 45 000 Lien as well which meant he had earnt around 58 000 Lien in the two months with Pyrrha with him being capable of doing harder and harder missions.

With her as a safety line, his nerves in particular were manageable as he faced down stronger and stronger Grimm.

That was one of the reasons why he had created the Spearman series of Aura Soldiers, to counter the much faster and more dangerous Beowolves though they do no compare to the Ursai in terms of threats. Jaune knew that he was lucky that day and he didn't want to rely on luck to survive.

Although, it did help that Boarbatusk kills earnt you 500 Lien per kill and anything else even more. They had killed a _lot_ of Grimm to help him better prepare for the future. The Aura Soldier skill was one that rapidly grew with battle. There was no point in training to such an extreme if they remained clumsy.

That and he figured that he could probably survive a few Boarbatusks along without his skills since most of his stats were around E rank levels then and even more so now.

"Show Stats" he commanded.

 **Stats: [-]**

 **Power:** 24/50

 **Speed:** 35/50

 **Dexterity:** 22/50

 **Perception:** 26/50

 **Reaction Speed:** 25/50

 **Endurance:** 30/50

 **Stamina:** 33/50

 **Aura:** 203/50

Compared to 2 months ago he was a lot stronger becoming someone that was a decent E rank Huntsman from someone who was barely capable of holding that rank. But compared to 3 months ago when he could barely consider himself even an F rank Huntsman, it was like the difference between heaven and earth.

Of course compared to Pyrrha who had stats at least 100 points or higher in at least 3 of her stats (and he really doubts she didn't manage to train all her stats to 100 points or higher by now), he was pretty much _nothing_ in stat wise compared to her, but to anyone else of the same rank, he was surprisingly competent.

The majority of his stats were of at least E rank with the sole exception being Power which was just almost there and Dexterity which was a bit lower than that. But on the flip side his Perception and Reaction Speed stats were just on the border of E rank whiles his Endurance, Stamina and Speed stats were towards the mid-range for E rank.

In all, everything seemed to be going up for Jaune Arc.

-o-

"Oi! Jaune! Wait up!"

Jaune stopped from his walk to the Guild to talk to Gred about some things about the new release of the X-ray comics to see a blue haired fellow Huntsman running up to him. From the back of his memories he remembered that this was Sky, the sole D rank Huntsman in town.

Make what you have with it; this town is on the smaller scale of importance in the Kingdom. The proof itself is in the quality of Hunters associated with it, most being E rank Hunters and the rare D rank once in a while. The larger the town and more important it is, the better supplies they have and naturally as a result, the better quality Hunters they have as a result and more quantity as well.

This town has a total of 27 Hunters with the majority being of E rank in ability. Compared to that, the capital of Vale has _hundreds_ of Hunters coming in and out of the place constantly with their average quality of Hunters being of C rank though that is more about there are a number of A and B rank Hunters being there than anything else thank to the sheer quality and quantity of supplies located there.

It is not surprising that all Hunters eventually end up in that city sooner or later when they are strong enough.

Therefore Sky Lark was a weird case where as far as he knew; he came _back_ to this town when he certainly had the money at least to go to the capital and make a living there.

"Yes?" he asked.

Looking none exhausted Sky said, "I want to say that you're becoming a real noteworthy figure in town you know. I mean three months ago you weren't…that well known for being good and now you're part of us. The larger group of Hunters. Thanks to Pyrrha of course."

"Yeah, Pyrrha really helped me when no one else could figure out what was wrong with my skill" he replied.

Jaune was wondering _why_ Sky was talking to him. Two years ago, he was among the first to kick him down the curb when it was 'apparent' that he wasn't going anywhere with his skill level back then.

"Of course" Sky smiled brightly, "I figured that it was the case. In fact I was wondering that you have some tips that you got from Pyrrha on how to get stronger quickly like you. A lot of people had their eyes on you since back then."

"Mostly hard work. Pyrrha is really a slave-driver when it comes to training" he shrugged, "Figures that she's like that since she managed to become a champion fighter apparently."

"Ah yes, she _was_ known for being a 4 time champion of the Mistral Tournament" he agreed, "She is one of the leading figures of our generation already at her age. Of course there's that Schnee that has an almost similar reputation in Atlas and I heard there is quite a prodigy in Signal who's almost the level of a C ranker while only being 15."

"Huh. Didn't know there were that many strong people in the world our age" he admitted bashfully. He wasn't exactly the most well connected person and rarely got information about the outside world except from the major news sites.

"And Pyrrha tops them all" Sky continued to speak, "But more than that, your own improvements might one day allow you to be among them."

Sky moved and slung his arm over Jaune's shoulder before saying, "Think about it. _Thousands_ of people as your fans, inspiration…as long as you know what you're doing. Think about it, the _partner_ of Pyrrha Nikos. People will talk, have talked about you."

The blonde started to frown but resisted a full grimaced at where this may go.

"I can help you" he said non nonchalantly, "I have _connections_ with people you sponsors will literally flock to you with money and fame when they see what you can do and what you could do in the future."

"And the _only_ think I have to do is trust you?" Jaune raised an eyebrow.

"Naturally" Sky waved his arm off, "Why else would I do this if this wasn't to my own benefit? I am helping _you_ help me."

" _People_ have noticed you" Sky continued, "And do you want them to remember you as someone as a rising star or someone riding off the _Invincible Girl's_ fame and reputation."

"That sounds like a threat."

"It isn't."

Jaune snorted, "Yeah right. I only worked hard to get where I am today."

He certainly remembered all the days he couldn't even drag his body to bed because he worked himself into exhaustion so many times to grow stronger and stronger as fast as possible. He wanted to catch up to Pyrrha and his body breaking down was just a sad side-effect to it that wasn't permanent.

"Hard work? Really? As if anyone would believe that" Sky laughed bitterly, "As if you weren't working hard two years ago. Surely there has to be something else that she did to help you."

"No, just hard work" Jaune shook his head before walking off. He didn't want to bother with this kind of person anymore.

He had no time for people who want to suck up to him to get to Pyrrha. And this wasn't the first time a 'gracious' Hunter in town wanted some 'tips' from him only to try and get on Pyrrha's good side for their own gain. Jaune learnt quickly what it meant to be the partner of her and he didn't care.

He left Sky speechless as he continued on his way to the Guild not noticing the increasingly intense glare at his back.

…..

…..

To say that Sky Lark was angry was an understatement. He was frankly furious at the figure known as Jaune Arc for good reason in his mind. There is a place for everyone in the world and he, ever since he had seen the exploits of the Hunters at the capital of Vale, knew his own place.

At best he could become a C rank Huntsman.

He wasn't the most talented, most well connected or most well-funded. He couldn't train himself to surpass his limits so easily that it became clear that he could become someone great in the eyes of society, he couldn't call up people through his influence because he had none to speak up and he couldn't obtain powerful equipment that might and could have bridge the gap between him and stronger Hunters because he didn't have the money.

In all, he knew that he wasn't meant to be some big-shot Hunter. But he wanted to. And that was why he returned to the small town that he first started off in. Compared to the rest of the Hunters there he was strong. He was _someone_ who could be looked up to. And looking down on them he knew where they placed as well.

With Jaune Arc, he was someone who probably tried harder than him and yet ended up in the bottom.

That made sense to Sky; he knew that he probably could never get to the B rank or even surpasses many of C rank by the end of his career. That was something he accepted quite easily on his own. Therefore what was it to him that there was someone who couldn't rise from F rank?

After a while Sky had to admit that he had forgotten the existence of Jaune Arc. It wasn't something he was guilty or proud of because he was really a background character. Someone so insignificant that he could never match up to other actors in the world, someone that he would never need to pay attention to besides being a reminder that everyone couldn't be a Hunter no matter how much they tried.

Sky made a group whole Jaune went alone. Sky succeeded where Jaune failed. It was quite a contrast when you thought about it. Even more so when he was getting a small fortune with the idea that Dove brought up on 'farming' Grimm with ease and without danger.

People naturally had to make ways that were better than the ones before them and Sky admitted he had the 'fortune' of leading Dove Bronzewing for that idea. By the end of his career he could make a small fortune and live off it comfortably.

Sky Lark was content with that life so far.

Then Pyrrha Nikos appeared.

 _Invincible Girl_.

At that moment Sky Lark and probably many other Hunters in town saw an opportunity. _She_ was talented, she was well connected and she was well-funded at the same time. _This was someone at the top of the world_ , he thought when she appeared. But he didn't approach her. Not yet anyway.

He saw the _idiots_ try to pamper her for something as insignificant as money or tips. And at the same time he saw that they were rejected quite harshly even if the Invincible Girl had a smile on her face and saw polite words. They didn't even know that they were brushed off. Then…Sky realised something.

 _He_ could see through her. He was the one who didn't come and talk _to_ her about everything that they wanted and what she could do to help them achieve that. He was the one who didn't bother her and instead acted professional.

By the end of the day he _wanted_ her.

He wanted the girl who could beat down any other their age, he wanted the girl who could possibly help him if he helped her and he wanted the quite beautiful flower that would be on _his_ arm if he didn't everything correctly and made her to show her _sense_ that she should be on his side.

And by the end of the day all of that was _ruined_.

By the hands of the insignificant Jaune Arc who had the _chance_ , _luck_ and _sheer fortune_ to be there at the right time and place for him to _somehow_ claim the most important person that he could ever meet to be great!

 _How?! How can such a complete NOTHING so easily snatch her away?!_ , he roared in his mind.

But he did nothing to him. That would be foolish; he was still a Hunter in the end and Jaune as much as he didn't want to admit it was still a comrade amongst countless others who faced Grimm to protect humanity. Of course he didn't anything about any others who did not have the same restraints as him even if they somehow managed to fail in their attempts.

He just continued to farm the Grimm by trapping them and killing them one by one day after day with the traps and landfills that his group had created and long used. It was easy money after all and the quality of their equipment had gone up a rank since a year ago thanks to the sheer amount of lien that they had gained.

And at the same time, with time he only got angrier seeing what the idiot was doing.

Three _fucking_ months.

That was how much time it took for the reputation of Jaune Arc to go from nothing to someone who could possibly match and eventually surpass _him_ in combat. Three months as he watched as Jaune Arc become a _somebody_ by doing _nothing_ but leech off the _Invincible Girl_.

Of course he tried to correct her view in helping such a baboon but she wasn't having any of it. He was probably blackmailing her or something for his charm to fail on her. Naturally, the other Huntresses in town were either plain or ugly so he never bothered with them.

As far as Sky could tell, Jaune could easily have made it to E rank through the merit of having good genes and parents for his slightly larger than normal Aura reserves. The fact that he only made it now after 2 years showed he was truly _weak_. The fact it still took 3 months with the Invincible Girl just made him pathetic. It showed that the _leech_ truly didn't have it in him to be anything great, even with such a powerful figure aiding him.

He couldn't even train without her let alone missions.

All of them were successes of course. How could it not with the Invincible Girl on his side. If it was _him_ who partner with her, he could've gotten the C rank he deserved for a while now in the same timeframe. The stupid guild only made so many restrictions for a higher rank to restrict him personally.

So what if he didn't have the required 'stats' to rank up? His power with a Halberd was better than anyone else's' in town to the point he was a clear C rank in that stat. He had literally obliterated Grimm in a single strike before. Wasn't that enough to show that he wasn't at the bottom half of Hunters? Not to mention of how many Grimm he had personally killed.

There were countless others that were promoted through their merits and not from their stats, so why couldn't he? What made them different from him? Was due to connections? No, he wasn't lacking in _any_ area.

…And he was going to prove it.

-o-

Leaving the Guild after talking to Gred about some matters about his debt and how to balance paying it off and getting better gear, Jaune headed towards the training area he had been to more time in the last three months than the last two years without a care. Today was going to be another exhausting day where Pyrrha would kick his ass repeatedly.

However at the same time, he was making progress and with that, he would have to eventually grow strong enough to handle himself without making her so worried all the time.

Then, a hand gripped his shoulder and forced him to stop and he turned to see a surprisingly angry Sky Lark.

"Oh? Do you think I haven't _noticed_ Jaune" Sky growled, "Two years ago you were a literally rising star. The Aura Soldier skill, something _many_ have tried and failed to learn and yet _you_ somehow managed. Of course people were gushing over you but they learnt that you were in the end a failure, the place you _deserve_ to be."

"What the hell is going on?" Jaune quickly threw the arm off. He didn't like where this was going.

More importantly, what was this guy's deal? He barely even met him the entire time he was a Hunter and now, all of a sudden he was picking a fight with him. Not to mention that they had almost never interacted ever before save the time when they both started off as Huntsmen.

"You were nothing. Supposed to be _nothing_ " Sky slammed his fist at the nearby wall and it cracked most likely due to the punch being aura enhanced in some way, "Then Pyrrha _fucking_ Nikos appeared and suddenly you were someone _great_ again?! She trained you, does missions with you and all of a sudden, in three fucking months you are _something_ again?!"

Mid-way through the rant, Jaune already decided it was good time to bolt out of here but quickly saw several shadowed figured that were chuckling as he noticed them. All of them were armed and all of them looked ready to stop him from escaping. It looked like he wasn't going out of this without some sort of conflict.

"Sky…" Jaune cautiously tried to talk down deranged Huntsman but he knew that wasn't going to happen, "What are you planning? And what the hell is wrong with you? I barely know you and I certainly don't have any beef with you."

" _Proving that I'm fucking better than you!_ " Sky roared before grabbing his Halberd.

Instinct override Jaune's thoughts and body as the drawn weapon came crashing down on him just at the same time he ducked, covered his entire body with his shield above his head and endured the impact that was almost to the level of Pyrrha's own attack.

 **BANG!**

The force itself forced both knees to the ground and left him a bit staggered as a result.

' _Fuck…_ ' Jaune cursed as he rolled to the right seeing a second blow coming down at him. The blow itself managed to make a decent dent in the ground causing him to sweat a bit.

He wanted to scream that this was a crime but he knew that it was futile. For better or worse, _this_ technically doesn't count as a crime, being attacked like this that is. For some Hunters, this can be considered training and therefore the law was altered a bit where fellow Hunters can attack each other a certain amount of time to 'train' them to be more situational aware and have better reaction timing to being attacked.

But at the rate Sky was going at, he might as well be committing a crime of manslaughter or murder to a fellow Hunter if he didn't survive this.

And as much as Jaune really didn't _care_ that Sky could get jailed or worse thanks to his own actions, he really liked living and he doubt that any of the guys that were hiding not so well nearby would help him at all in favour of letting Sky have his way.

"Why the hell are you attacking me like this?! Are you planning on killing me?" Jaune shouted.

Fortunately, that gave Sky a stop to consider a moment before a smirk appeared on the blue-haired teen's face, "That's right…better not get in trouble for this."

The next second, Jaune didn't have time to be confused as a message appeared from his A.U.R.A system.

 **[Huntsman (Sky Lark) has requested for a duel. Y/N?]**

"A duel. You want me to _duel_ you? A duel that you're using as an excuse to _murder_ me! And after attacking me like that without warning!" Jaune asked, shocked and flabbergasted at the same time with a tin of fear mixed in.

His shield was pointed at the deranged Hunter and his sword was firmly in his right hand by now. He was _not_ getting into this without being prepared for any and all kinds of attacks against him.

" _Naturally_ " Sky spat out, "How else do you think I'm going to do this? The A.U.R.A system tracks all crimes the user does and if I attacked you any more without 'duelling' then I'm going to be fined and get a record."

Pausing to that, Jaune considerer those words and wondered how simple the solution to getting out of this was.

"So I can just leave right now then" he deadpanning that as if things could be so simple.

Chuckling, Sky whistled and a group of five surrounded him, those people he spotted which prevented him escaping to begin with, "Nope. These buddies of mine will make sure that you don't."

"Are you _sure_ to want to do this? I mean a few words to the guild and your records will be pretty screwed."

Looking around rapidly, Jaune could tell that all of these Hunters were E rank at least considering that every single Hunter in town was of that rank with the exception of Pyrrha and Sky here. Two were equipped with shields, one using a sword and the other with a mace, another using dual swords and the last two having single swords in one of their hands each.

"As if you can do that" one of them snorted, "That says that you have any power over them."

"Yeah yeah" the others chorused in agreement.

Jaune sighed while keeping an eye on each and every one of them. 'Thankfully', if he accepted the duel, the A.U.R.A system would register any attacks from anyone else to be interference and would record it as a crime if the other party to the duel continued to attack at all.

At least _if_ he accepted the duel. He was still trying to figure out a way to get out of here without fighting.

And by the way they were positioned, Jaune would have a difficult time escaping without someone including Sky cutting him off and attacking him. That and he was pretty sure that all of them had ranged weapons in some form or another so escaping was even more difficult. Furthermore he didn't have the time to try to call Pyrrha or Gred to help him get out of this situation

Trying a way to escaping for a good 10 seconds, he gave up on that venture.

"Fine" he gritted his teeth, "I don't need to tell you that getting some of your goons" he pointed his head at some of them, "To help you in the duel isn't going to end well right?"

Sky just rolled his eyes, arms crossed, "Naturally."

 **[You have accepted the duel from Huntsman (Sky Lark)]**

Drawing his sword and positioning his shield, Jaune waited for the countdown.

 **[Duel begins in…5…4…3…2…1…]**

 **[START]**

"TAKE THIS!"

Jaune watched dispassionately as Sky reach up high with his halberd and swung it crashing down at him. He could tell that if he allowed it to hit him, it would probably drain more than half of his aura to make it a non-fatal blow. If he blocked with his shield he would still take a tenth of his aura to do so.

But more than that, he could tell that Sky Lark wasn't well trained in fighting…else extremely confident that he would win at least.

Still, he had to admit that his opponent was at least as fast as him though that doesn't say much since his Speed stat was only at the E rank level. Still, by the time a second and a half passed, Jaune had already analysed most the information he needed to win this duel with ease. The easiest would be to use his Aura Soldier skill naturally.

Aside from giving him the numbers advantage, having one that had twice his opponent's speed would literally allow him to win in seconds. Most Hunters of a certain level had trouble with dealing with things that were naturally faster than them in the end and he doubted that Sky was an exception to this rather than the rule.

However Jaune had not intentions of doing so.

Side-stepping to the left, Jaune positioned and swung his own weapon at Sky who reacted quickly enough to block the attack with his Halberd though positioned badly enough that he was able to slightly unbalance the other with sheer force that he knew would've been insufficient in any other case. Pressing onto this advantage, he continued to attack, swinging quickly and precisely at where Sky's fingers were.

Sure it was a morally unsound tactic seeing that there was a chance that Jaune could end the other Hunter's career but so was surrounding him, attacking him and _then_ demanding for a Duel that he could not back out on. Therefore he had no intention of even feeling sorry for the bastard if it ends up that way.

A minute passed.

Both participants were 'dancing' around each other with weapons clanging as metal hit metal. However it was clear that one side was attacking more than the other as Jaune tend to rely on his blocking more than anything else thanks to his style of fighting and that Sky had a gun function in his weapon as well.

Sky was at 76% Aura while Jaune was at 82% Aura but that was mainly due to how much more Aura the latter had to the former. He wasn't used to being the one who was supposed to attack. That was what his Aura Soldiers were for.

' _I wonder if I could just deploy one and end this fight right now_ ' he thought while deflecting yet another blow.

While Sky Lark was a formidable foe in terms of raw power, he had neither the speed nor complexed fighting style that Pyrrha had and used on him over and over again to help him train. Even when holding back, Pyrrha was stronger than his current opponent who was going all out judging by the sheer frustration on his face every time he missed an attack.

If Sky gave into rage…well then things might become easier for him. Anger often gave openings to exploit more than not. Therefore he had to exploit it.

"Is this really all? I mean, Pyrrha pushed me a lot harder than this" he asked mockingly.

He watched in a bit of amusement as he saw a twitch on Sky's face as the latter snarled out, "Don't think you can get to me that easily _fake_."

Purposely exaggerating his movements while dodging, parrying or otherwise straight out blocking, he inquired, "Fake? A 'fake' like me managed to last in combat against you for more a whole minute despite you not holding back? I haven't even attacked you properly yet and you're already failing in beating me."

"Don't think I can't tell what your 'fighting style' is all about. You barely attacked me and the only ready why you're still fighting is because of your ridiculous aura reserves" roared Sky while pressing on with his attack with more vigour, "You're all about letting others do the work for you."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Jaune slammed his sword against the side of the Halberd before kicking off and blocking another attack.

"Don't think I can't tell that you're not actually completing any missions. Money is split no matter how much contribution they make and you have the bloody _Invincible Girl_ do errands for you while you skim off her effort!" he cried out.

Snarling wordlessly in return, Jaune now truly started to attack. However at the same time, this gave his opponent more opportunity to attack as the experienced in sheer close combat was shown with each strike and each passing dodge.

The next couple of attacks were harsh on Jaune, especially since it appeared that rage allowed for Sky to attack faster than before causing his Aura levels to go from 82% down to 67% in a matter of seconds. However at the same time, the extensive number of attacks left Sky more exhausted than before.

Pacing as Pyrrha said it many times to him was extremely important in battle.

Gathering a 'fair' amount of Aura (for other people that is), he compressed it instinctively in his foot and sent a kick at Sky who blocked with his Halberd but wasn't at all prepared to react in time to the second attack from his shield that bashed into his face.

Sky flinched from the pain but didn't say anything, growling in the process. Jaune took it as a sign that he was slowly getting to him and continued to push his attacks via mostly his shield because of his skill with it. Rushing slightly forward as Sky retreated, he allowed his shield to tank an attack before using a shield bash to push his opponent back before leaping with another shield bash, knocking him back even more.

However it seemed that his opponent quickly got tired of this as Jaune was forced to block and was sent back a few metres from a single powerful aura enhanced attack.

"Bastard! Blue Wave Combo Striker!" Sky called out as his halberd was suddenly covered by a light blue aura. At the same time he could tell that his opponent's aura sharply dropped at the same time.

'A _skill! Uses a significant amount of aura to probably increase damage on impact in some way. Unknown in how it does so_ ', a warning flashed in his mind as he connected the weapon, aura and the shout as an Active Skill that needed to be avoided at all costs.

His shield was suddenly positioned in front of him in the same instance as he called out:

"Aura Enhancement!"

Jaune's whole body was covered in white aura within the next second as he narrowly dodged and retreated from the combo of strikes from Sky. He had noticed in particular, while the range of the strikes increased, his attacks were less controlled and more wolf than before though he chalked that up due to rage and anger more than a lack of skill.

BAM!

The first strike dodged due to it being another overhead attack and he dodged to the right just to make sure his shield side was always to the weapon. However the second strike _somehow_ rebounded off the ground, cracking it while heading towards him.

BANG!

The strike landed true on his shield as Jaune braced himself and saw that Sky swung around and initiated a second strike which he knew he didn't have the reaction time or speed to dodge completely. Therefore, he was forced to block a second strike in a row.

 **BANG!**

"Agh."

Feeling numbness in his left arm, the attack toppled him over to the ground from the sheer force that was generated and pounded into his shield and body through that. From the edge of his eye, he could tell that Sky was not stopping his attacks at all and moved to strike him while he was on the ground.

Fortunately, he managed to roll away from the fourth attack and swung to at least stop the combo of continued attacks.

 _Clang~_

But at the same time, Jaune wasn't the greatest in the Power and Dexterity department and it showed as he somehow managed to attack shallowly, not even slowing Sky down as he prepared to attack once more while he was still on the ground.

But he had a plan…

Jaune Arc always has a plan!

"Aura Charge!"

As his white aura started to cover his shield which was positioned to protect him as he rolled and kneeled on the ground to reduce the impact of the force as much as possible, he noticed something unusual. His aura was…

…Strange? Protective? Spreading?

He wasn't sure of what this feeling was or to decipher it but at the moment Sky managed to impact his Halberd into his shield, three things happened at the same time. The first, and most noticeable was that the aura around his shield flared out several times brighter than normal. The second was that the force of impact was being _transferred_ from his shield and through his body into the ground, precisely where his body connected to it.

And third was that Sky was knocked back by an 'unknown' force that was most likely his own attack being rebounded back at him.

 **BANG!**

Jaune blinked in surprise as he didn't expect his semblance to come into play here.

That and his ears were hurting from the abnormally loud noise. Not to mention what kind of affect it had on Sky and his weapon in particular. He saw that the weapon was cracked in a couple of places and was only intact due to pretty good quality construction.

"The hell?" one the goons shouted out drawing his weapon out.

' _Crap'_ he thought. The reality of the situation itself was degrading quite quickly and he was half-sure that they would attack him sooner or later

"Boss! What do we do?" asked one of the other goons doing the same.

Seeing that some of them were about to idiotically about to charge at him, Jaune was prepared to deploy his Aura Soldiers to help deal with them when one of them, Dove if he remembered shouted, "We will do NOTHING. Are you all planning to be fined for interfering with an ongoing duel?!"

"How is the duel not ended yet? Boss is down…and look at his _condition_!"

Dove grimaced, "I don't know, his Aura might be just above red levels for him to still continue despite this."

Hearing that, the rest of the Hunters stopped short and didn't move…though the expression on their faces said that they wanted to. Especially when they were applying themselves on what Jaune could do right now without any repercussions.

Not that he actually would, he was a better person than that.

"Then what the hell happened?" one demanded glaring at him this time.

Rolling his eyes, Jaune said one thing while getting up and noting that his Aura was at 46%, "Semblance."

Dove tensed for a moment before relaxing but at the same time drew both of his weapons out when he noticed something. Jaune in turn turned and looked to see the state that Sky was in and winced at his condition.

The blonde watched the blue-haired Hunter try and slowly got up, using his Halberd as support while struggling to stay up with shaking legs as most of his equipment was cracked and broken at some parts. However what was most exceptional about Sky was that his Aura set at _just_ 21%, a percentage above the cut-off from where the duel would end.

-And that was probably the only reason the five other Hunters nearby wasn't about to attack him.

But more than that, the glare along with the _vicious_ grin that he had right now was enough to make him flinch momentarily and become more wary.

"I… _surrender_ " he hissed out.

 **[You are the VICTOR!]**

 **[Duel Ended]**

 **[Restrictions removed]**

"…Well fuck" he summarised correctly as the five Hunters all had menacing smirks on their faces as they approached with weapons drawn.

He tried to reason with them, "You _do_ know that you all will be fined and imprison for a while for this right?"

One of them shrugged, "We can pay the fine and it's not like this place can jail us. Sky just wanted to fight against you alone to prove that he was _better_. He would've if not for your bullshit semblance. Plus he was ranting that everything you did was thanks to your Aura Soldier skill."

' _He is correct though…but not completely especially since I fought him without using said skill but more importantly, how am I going to get out of this without being beaten up?_ ' thought Jaune, eyes gazing rapidly from place to place trying to find an escape.

But before any of them could attack him, they all stopped in their tracks.

" _What_ are you all doing?" a kind, serious and _deadly_ voice asked.

Everyone turned and looked as Jaune gasped, "Pyrrha?"

…..

…..

Pyrrha felt like scum.

It was an aching feeling that dropped from the bottom of her stomach that pained her especially every time she saw her leader and partner get hit and injured because she didn't simply interfere with what was happening right in front of her and save him the pain that she was letting him go through.

However she was a Huntress. She _needed_ to know that she could let Jaune cover her back and be allowed to completely focus what was in front of her at any time. It wasn't that she didn't trust him, she did so in spares but it was a matter of ability. The fact that her leader fought without the use of the Aura Soldier skill only made her analysis on him much easier and also proud that power did not get into his head so easily.

Looking at the quite beaten Sky that was on his last leg if not for his aura supporting him, she really felt no pity for him. To surround someone and force them into a duel while they don't know whether or not they'll be attacked at any moment?

Distasteful was the more mild term she could think of for such an act, more so by a person as insignificant as Sky Lark in the grand scheme of things.

Hunters were ranked from A-F based on their abilities more than anything else and it is generally agreed that a team of 4 Hunters of a single rank lower than a sole Hunter of a single rank higher has around a 50-50 chance of winning give or take which is usually why most teams are of 4 Hunters though there aren't any _actual_ restrictions on the numbers.

However at the same time, teams with more than 4 members are usually looked down against unless they have exceptional teamwork because most of the time, more Hunters in a single team would just interfere with each other's action in battle. High speed combat is a difficult place to be in and any and all distractions could cause deaths.

Because of this, having more than 4 Hunters against one of a rank higher than them doesn't mean a higher chance of victory but in some ways, victory is more ensured even with a higher chance of causality.

And naturally those with an S rank rating are a whole another game where even a dozen A rank Hunters may not be capable of taking that person down no matter what strategy they use. But like on _many_ things, S rankers were the exception rather than the rule.

"Five Hunters surrounding my partner…in what circumstances can this be anything but a crime?" she asked flaring her aura up slightly. While her aura wasn't exactly the easiest to see (especially when it is darker) people tend to be able to sense of what danger they seem to be in.

-Well those with Aura at least.

(She _tries_ to repress the memory of the frankly too sheltered and _idiotic_ middle-aged baboon that decided a _Grimm_ would be a good _pet_ and got eaten as a result. The paperwork following that incident… _shudder_ )

"Pyr-rha Ni-kos?" one shuttered out.

"Shit! We have to get away" another shouted.

"But…maybe we can take her?"

The man who made that last comment was promptly slapped on the head as two others grabbed their leader and they all ran for it. She let them go simply to tend over Jaune sooner than later seeing that he was injured during the fight. She could report them later if she wished.

"You okay Jaune?" she asked scanning over his body to see if any injuries required a doctor to look through them.

After a good few seconds, she sighed in relief as it seemed that there were not any deadly wounds on his body as far as she could tell so far.

"Yeah, glad you got here in time…"

She visually _choked_ as he said that. It went beyond her own nature to allow what happened to Jaune just now before she stepped in.

"Pyrrha?" he questioned. She could already tell that in his mind he was making theories of her reactions and would eventually come to a horrid conclusion that even she didn't like and yet she did anyway.

"Yes?" she smiled.

He paused for a moment, a moment that felt like minutes to her, "Do you have anything to say to me?"

This time, she was the one who paused before staying silent. It was…better to approach this slowly than to outright say that she literally threw him to the wolves and to other Hunters that held malevolent towards him because she could.

"A couple…" she admitted.

He raised an eyebrow as she continued, "From what I could find out, most of the Hunters in town are generally jealous or envious of you in some form or another. Some of it comes of your sudden success streak but most of it comes from being partnered with _me_."

"And among them, Sky Lark seemed to be the best managed and the worst at the same time" she sighed, "While he wasn't some of the ones who _bothered_ me blatantly, he still was one that stalked me when he could to the point that he had at one point ordered an 'accident' to occur so he would 'save' me and so on from there. When that failed he…well started bothering me even more."

She stopped there to see the strange reaction on Jaune's face. There was no hatred or disgust towards her to silent acceptance as he said, "Sooo…basically all the crap that he said about me was because he was _jealous_?"

"That and I suspect being the 'top dog' of this town for so long made him think that he was entitled for more than he could have" Pyrrha shrugged before admitting, "I…well watched your duel with him."

"Oh."

He did not scream, he did not rage but rather she wished he did. What he did was to stay silent with a mostly intentional blank face while looking at her confused more than anything else and that _hurt_ her.

"Can…you tell me _why_?"

Another piece of Pyrrha broke down. She was really not suited to the more dubious and paranoid aspect of being a Hunter after all.

…..

…..

In many ways, Jaune Arc was _not_ hurt but rather just confused. This came with 2 years' worth of betrayed trust with others he thought he could. While he did not turn into a shallow shell of a person who could not trust anyone ever again, he was more durable in the sense that such a thing was more _expected_ by him sooner or later.

"I'm sorry Jaune. I had to make _sure_ that you were ready for this kind of thing" she explained as though it didn't make it better.

He was her leader. Therefore, he placed his outmost trust in Pyrrha in combat but at the same time expected her to betray his trust in some form at some point otherwise. They were human and this was just _expected_ after all.

"Unfortunately as it is, not all forms of combats that a Hunter does involve only Grimm. There are times when Hunters are brought in to handle other criminals and especially those with Hunter training. And to be trained for one thing is to not be trained in another" continuing she paced a bit before stopping.

"But I had to be _sure_ " she repeated, "More than knowing you can handle human to human combat, I needed to be sure that you were strong enough without me. Strong enough that I can give you my back to protect when the time comes because too many have died because they had… _misplaced_ their trust. Even though I wanted to…"

She grimaced to that but quickly leaned towards a sad frown that said more than that was actually said. Jaune was actually a good reader of the mood…when it comes to more serious issues and did not involve anything related to dating prospects. He could tell that she was filled with guilt with her actions…at least from what he could tell.

He could tell that she _hated_ her actions as something distasteful.

Which was more why he felt more pain than _vindication_ of the pained look Pyrrha had as she attempted to explain why she let a bunch of people corner him and force him into a duel which would've lead to an actual beat down if she wasn't just watching it all happen and to appear at the last moment as the hero.

-Though he quickly dismissed that she had such a thought. She wasn't that kind of person.

More than anything else, Jaune _trusts_ Pyrrha to do the right thing, even if it was against him in the end. It was in her character, it was in her method of training that was bent towards straightforward combat without trickery unlike what he was striving towards and it was in her actions big and small as she supported him in every way possible she could.

He trusted that she did this with him in mind and for the team in mind but not for her in mind in the end.

It was an odd quirk for a Hunter (but many things were) that his partner felt that helping others went before helping herself. Looking back at the fight and how he performed…he could understand where she was coming from in a logical matter. That would also be a decision he would make if he was in her shoes.

The next time he would fight a Hunter he would be more prepared for bullet based attacks by hopefully not being shot by them. His reaction timing and speed wasn't enough to counter all or rather any of them. That and he was moving too much to evade attacks which only lead to Sky having a large timing opportunity to attack him further.

"I get it Pyrrha" he said a bit too harshly, "I would've done the same time as you in the end."

Sighing, Jaune tried to rub the headache away but found that it was still persistent for some reason. Still, if he was going to talk to Pyrrha about this, it was better to do so in _private_ where some citizens of the town weren't eavesdropping.

"I even _know_ that you actually didn't want to do this but whatever Hunter training you had demanded that you did so you did anyway" he grabbed her hand and pulled her along. Sure some people may still talk but it was still better than spilling their secrets in public.

That and she didn't resist as he dragged her to inside his apartment.

Popping her on his bed and sitting on a seat himself, Jaune breathed to steady his mind before asking, "So…can I get a step by step process of what you were thinking? From the very beginning? It would help me accept your actions better."

His partner looked startled as she asked, "You're…not angry at me?"

"No. I'm actually am" he deadpanned, "If I really was, I would be _screaming_ at you. That…kind got out of my system a long time ago. Well I mean with 'team-mates' doing stuff behind my back for their own gain."

Interrupting the red-head when she was about to protest he added, "Not that I believe _you_ going behind your back for your own sake. I think I may know more about your character to believe that you did not in fact betray me that way."

"…."

" _Right_?" he asked hopefully.

She nodded, "Yes…but a betrayal is still a betrayal."

"And I'm getting through this a lot better than you thought" he smirked.

" _Yes_. Why is that?" she asked, more disturbed now than distraught.

He shrugged once more and started to explain the process to which he was _repeatedly_ abandoned in one fashion or another when he couldn't prove himself good enough in battle as well as when he was still having his problems with the Aura Soldier skill before she appeared.

It took him 5 minutes for a full recount of his 2 years that she never asked about.

To his amusement, Pyrrha's expression was of pure horror the further he spoke of what happened. Well at least he managed to change her self-grooving about what she did which was marginally better than what he experienced in the past. Step one in making sure this conversation isn't as awkward as it could've been has been completed!

"…Wow" she breathed out breathlessly, "I did not realise…how some people may be in such circumstances."

"Yes they are" he agreed casually, "So your explanation."

Freezing on the spot, Jaune realised that they had gotten off topic a bit for her to react like this. Else she thought she could've avoided this entire talk by going off topic to begin with. He didn't which one it was but right now he really didn't care.

"There are several rules…no _fears_ that a Hunter has" she said, "Some of them are minor like attracting Grimm thanks to our larger Aura reserves than normal people but some are more serious that can happen at any time."

"And one of them, no, the _main_ one is the fear that your comrades aren't strong enough to save you when you need them to. It takes a lot of trust to allow someone to protect your life like that and that trust is often misplaced" he solemnly agreed.

"That and I wish to _live_ despite everything."

He knew that better than most his age because he knew that the others Hunters refused to party with him for that reason alone. Who would trust someone to fight with you when they couldn't protect themselves and more importantly, protect their comrades?

"Yes, while a Hunter can train _themselves_ to the point that they can protect themselves and others, there will still be a time when you need someone to save you in turn" she sighed, "And as someone with…my reputation, it's worse for me because people except me to protect _them_ all the time like my life doesn't matter at all. Most of the people my age are either E or D rank Hunters and nothing higher and that's the problem."

Jaune thought of her title as the 'Invincible Girl' and nodded along.

Gazing into his eyes she continued, "So since the start of my Hunter career, I haven't had a single solid party where I could rely completely on others besides those _older_ than me by a few years. And by that time most of them already were in a solid party with no need for anyone else intruding."

"And that led me to seek others that I could trust with my back…"

"But you found none. Everyone else was either too weak or too indulgent in your fame to consider."

"Yes. It was quite aggravating to find no one that could match me in ability or even the level of growth I'd experienced. And I would never accept someone who was too willing to use my fame for their own gain in anything long term."

Smiling softly she almost whispered the next part, "I was afraid that I would never find someone let alone a whole group that I could team up with for the rest of my life. Most teams are for _life_ you know…"

"That's basically the story of my career until I came to Vale, also looked around at the capital and eventually came to the outskirt villages and towns and eventually found a rumour of someone _my_ age that somehow managed to learn the prestigious Aura Soldier skill and followed it to you."

"And then you found that I was the _failure_ " he laughed but she didn't.

As if comforting him instead of the other way around (this situation is too confusing. Who was comforting who?), she placed her hands on his and said firmly, "You are not a failure Jaune Arc. If the last three months and _especially_ what I allowed you to experience earlier today has told me, you are anything but a failure."

He blushed. Compliments like this, even with Pyrrha often praising him when he did something right were rare that it was unexpected. Most of the time she praised his commitment and training success but she never did say anything about his character itself.

"For one, that title is more appropriate for the one called Sky Lark than anyone else" she snorted.

"Huh? Isn't he…like the strongest Hunter in town after you?" Jaune asked. He was surprised more about her attitude towards his fellow Huntsman than that she allowed him to having a duel with said Hunter.

Letting out a sigh that seemed like suffering to him she placed up three fingers, "One. Being a Hunter isn't all about strength or pure ability alone. In that aspect alone, you are a better Hunter than Sky Lark could ever be. Two, Hunter ranks do not determine whether you are stronger or not. I think you know that already. And third, _most_ Hunters when acquiring an appropriate rank leave towards a large town and eventually end up at the capital."

"Why is that?" he inquired. That was something he didn't know.

She bristled, " _Beacon_ , the headquarters of the Hunter Association as well as the Hunter Academy at the same time is located there. I could say that it's because of the superior supplies, connections and technology that draws people there but it's more because of tradition."

"Most stories about Hunters, at least the origin stories start off with the hero in their minor forgettable home-town and eventually drift to the capital for whatever reason" she accounted, "And most of the time, the younger Hunters our age go to Beacon to attend their 4 year course that usually outputs a number of A rank Hunters by the end of that time period."

His eyebrow shot up due to that. Among the many things that were taught to him briefly of being a Hunter, one important thing to note is that A rank Hunters are _rare_. The average Hunter if trained seriously can get to C rank at best, those with a certain amount of talent can get to B rank but only the truly talented, _geniuses_ can get to A rank.

That was the comment perception at best before considering Beacon training that is.

"Oh it's quite common practise for an Academy like Beacon to output most of the A rank Hunters in Vale. The other capital Hunter Academies, Haven, Shade and Atlas also train up a similar amount of Hunters of a high rank. There are good reasons why they are considered the top-of-the-line institution for young Hunters to train in" she alleged.

"But I'm guessing there are… _conditions_ to be trained there."

She voiced his concerns, "Yes, there are several conditions in learning at _any_ of those places. One of which is of loyalty to whatever Kingdom you train in over Remnant as a whole. Another more commonly known one is that you need to serve as part of whatever's Academy's forces for duration of 4 years by which, you are sent to missions at any time at any place no matter what."

"And that is what causes so many Hunters to die despite their rank?" he frowned.

"Indeed. Rank matters little when you are forced to continue fighting in a cycle that never seems to end. All it takes is a single mistake to die by the claws of the Grimm. But the saddest part is that such…. _sacrifices_ are needed to keep the peace. You must understand Jaune" she uttered, " _This_ level of 'peace' you know, with Grimm still attacking villages and towns and countless people dying because of them…would've been a lot worse if not for those Hunters who lived and died in such a way."

"That is most likely why I considered such a life and death" she reckoned not showing any reaction to Jaune stiffing to her words, "I don't really have a goal for my life you know."

She hugged her knees, "I was trained to be a Huntress, got strong, continued to train, got stronger and fought Grimm in between all of that. I _really_ don't have a long time goal aside from serving Remnant as much as possible."

Jaune thought of his own dreams. The dream of the child of wanting to be a Hero like his many times Grandfather before him. The dream that he kept alive for _so_ long now despite everything that happened. He hadn't really given up on it, even when he was so weak that other abandoned him.

"So…you don't have any dreams?"

"No" she shook her head as if that was something wrong. He could see the start of tears, despite everything else; this was what was most important to her. Everyone has dreams…big or small.

But here was a girl that he knew that had no dreams apparently. That was…wrong to him. Like something grinding on rusted twisted metal wrong. It is something ingrain in humanity to wish for _more_. It is the wish that allows them to have determination to do whatever it takes to achieve such.

It is the dream of Hunters to see the end of Grimm.

It is the dream of Remnant to recover what was once lost.

It is the dream of Humanity to _survive_.

Jaune didn't believe that his partner did not have any such dreams to _not_ want to live to a certain point at least. Her actions so far showed that she had fears towards that not happening and therefore dreams of living long enough.

But at the same time he was a bit curious on why she thought herself to have no dreams. Was it her upbringing, her experience or something else that caused this?

Sighing, he really didn't know what to do especially when a girl was about to cry in front of him from a topic that was vague and had little change of appearing otherwise.

"I have a dream you know" he said softly, "When I was a child I had a dream to be a hero. Now that dream also includes surviving long enough to do more with my life. Get a job besides being a Hunter, making friends and having a family are things I sometime think about of what I will do in the future."

"They're simple enough that they can be dismissed but they are dreams nonetheless" he continued trying not to be too emotional.

However the sight of Pyrrha's _crushed_ expression shocked and hurt him more than anything else. He did not know what he did wrong. He did not know what was wrong. He did not know what he could do to fix this.

And when his partner spoke next, her words chilled him, " _I have no such dreams…I already buried them_."

He…could not say anything to that.

Every telling her what her dream should be from now on would be worthless. It was at that moment, he felt like laughing. In the three months he was with her, she was focused on him and he was focused on him. He knew that his partner would put the well-being of others before her already.

….And yet he didn't see _this_?

Dreams are something that grow and are nurtured with time and effort.

A person with no dreams is a dead person. They are the ones who will give of their lives if it means they can prove to themselves that they are something. They are the ones who train without regard to anything else like their lives depended on it. And they are the ones who believe that they have no dreams.

Pyrrha Nikos is a broken person.

But…that can change.

It is in his belief that eventually Pyrrha would someday have a dream on her own if she just stopped and looked around enough. It is his _hope_ that she does else there was no point in her living at all if there was nothing she yearned to strive towards in the future. It was a reason for living. Without them, a person might as well be dead.

"Hey Jaune...do you believe in Destiny?" she asked softly as she left him alone in his thoughts.

…..

…..

…..

Hours later, as Jaune was preparing to sleep, he had realised something when Pyrrha left without a word and he didn't stop her.

 _She didn't tell him why she wanted to live and yet had no dreams_.

-o-

It was the soft tremors that alerted him that something was wrong. It was the smell of smoke that made him jump out of bed. It was the screams of the damned and the roars of the beast that made him scramble for his equipment.

 **[Alert]**

 **[Alert]**

 **[Alert]**

 **[Grimm Horde Invasion inbound]**

 **[All Hunters in sector G-67 of the Kingdom of Vale are hence ordered:**

· **Converge into G-67 Town-34 to battle**

· **Slay all Grimm that are invading**

· **Save as many lives as possible**

· **Survive**

 **Contributions and rewards will be calculated based off mission parameters]**

 **[Mission ID: 00250098 (Protection of Town/Subjugation of Grimm) has been commission]**

 **[MISSION START!]**

Jaune Arc, E rank Huntsman and citizen of this town that was being invaded by the forces of Grimm didn't need anything else to prompt him as he dashed out of his apartment and into the streets filled with chaos.

-o-

 **Omake 1: Red not Black (non-canon)**

"Hey Pyrrha. How come it says in this article that your Aura colour is red? I'm pretty sure that it's black from what you showed me" Jaune asked while scrolling on his A.U.R.A system through some news about his partner in the past.

One such article detailed that her aura colour was indeed a mighty red.

"Oh, that article is from one of my interviews right?" Pyrrha peered down to see what her leader was reading.

"Mhmn" he nodded flicking to the section where he found the part, "Yeah, here" he pointed.

Looking up at her, he shot a curious gaze at her while asking, "Did you lie about it? Although that may be another advantage if everyone believes that the colour of your aura different from what they expect.

"…."

"…."

Pyrrha smiled brightly at him for some reason, "Yes that is _completely_ the truth. And it also played in my part as the 'Invincible Girl' when they think I'm barely using my Aura to beat them."

Jaune let another grunt out taking the answer easily, not seeing the sigh of relief that the red-head let out before she quickly left. He was simply more amused that such a thing happened and everyone was fooled for so long.

Pyrrha on the other hand was blushing slightly at the lie that she told her leader. In truth, her aura colour was indeed red but the effects of using her semblance caused it to appear black instead. Naturally when she used aura in conjunction with her semblance, her aura appeared to be black as well.

And most embarrassingly was the fact that she also lied when she told Jaune of her armour's weight. Despite all her training, she still required the use of her semblance in order to effectively wear it. After all, it weighed twice as she did and was one of the most durable armour in existence made just for her.

Her ability of magnetism from her magnetic polarity semblance was indeed powerful…

…To make anything the armour weigh a lot less on her was a miracle for any girl and Huntress. She didn't think she could go out in public if every single step she took made a dent on the ground all the time.

"Thank god for bullshit semblances…"

-o-

 **Omake 2: A Different Semblance**

 _"Well the last time I thought I was going to be killed, I blacked out for a while and found the Grimm trying to kill me dead the next time I opened my eyes_."

Pyrrha looked in horror as the Ursa Major managed to pierce through Jaune with one of its claw and could only watch helplessly as the body was fling away like a rag-doll. She screamed.

"JAUNE!"

She did not want to believe that this was happening. She had finally found someone she could willingly stay with and yet this happened. She failed him. Pyrrha Nikos failed the boy who could've and would've become a greater Hunter than she could ever be.

But things didn't end there.

 **Let my Wings be puked from the skies**

The words were like a low growl of a _beast_ rather than a human. It echoed and screeched like it grinded with metal. Pyrrha saw that even the Grimm paused in response to this sound and she could only feel a chill the moment she looked to see the origin of the voice to come from Jaune's corpse.

"What…is this?" she asked to no one.

She looked in horror as his _body_ got up despite the hole in him. It was like something was puppeteering his corpse. But more than that, the once white aura that she knew was Jaune's was being poured out of his body rapidly like a broken tap from the hole in his chest.

 **Let my Madness be caged with absolution**

The white aura consumed his body and it _twisted_ into the form of an armoured knight. If not for the sounds of _grinding_ every time the body moved, she would've thought such a scene was a good thing. Even more than that, the Ursa Grimm seemed to be frozen on the spot as well.

However despite all of this and wanting to attack the Grimm while she got her chance, her instincts as a Huntress were screaming at her to run away from this… _thing_ that was once Jaune.

 **Let my Order be filled with hatred**

The aura turned armour was complete and the _creature_ stood still in place without moving. But at the same time _black_ smoke started to pour from its entire body, the uncomfortable feeling that she was getting from the creature got worse.

She knew this feeling.

It was the same one that she felt with dangerous Grimm.

 **Let my Aura be tainted by darkness**

The moment the creature said those words, the pure white aura was diluted black and the white knight was turned into a black knight. She could feel it. She could feel the _hate, rage and evildarknessfeardisappearRUN_ that spilled the moment she felt the _red_ eyes glance at her.

Then it roared.

" _Oo_ _ **oooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh**_ _!"_

For the next few moments, Pyrrha Nikos could only watch the _monster_ that replaced her leader _destroy_ every single Grimm in sight. Black and red corruption spilled from where it struck and even wood and trees became weapons superior to her own in its hands.

There was no form in the way it moved; it was more like a beast than human.

There was no predictability in where it moved; it was more like a beast than human.

There was no _humanity_ in how it moved; it was more like a beast than human.

And at that moment, Pyrrha Nikos learnt how to _fear_ Jaune Arc, the _Berserker_. She could only stay still in sheer _terror_ hoping that it didn't notice her and end her next.

* * *

 **A/N: In total this chapter is 16.3K long though the main part of the chapter is 15K. Recently I had ideas with what could've been and wanted to write them in as omakes. The first one is due to NATSUxERZA 123456 commenting in a review that Pyrrha's aura is indeed red not black of how I wrote it previously while the second one was more due to a random thought of what would happen if Jaune's semblance made him Berserker in Fate/Zero. I can easily imagine Berserker!Jaune just ripping trees out and using the Knight of Honor ability to turn them into weapons.**

 **As for the first omake and why it exists...it's because I completely forgot about Pyrrha's aura colour from season one when she unlocked Jaune's aura during initiation compared to when the last battle she had was of her using her semblance and having a black outline/aura when she did. It was kind of confusing for me when it's been a while since I watched season one. But at the same time I'm not changing it because it's more interesting for her to make a black aura in this story than of a red one. There are a few future plot points I can develop if I keep this change compared to if I don't.  
**

 **Now for the other stuff I can talk about...well for one, Sky Lark and Dove Bronzewing appeared in this chapter mainly because I needed some 'villains' for Jaune to fight. Yeah, I'm kicking a dead horse here making the people from Team CRNL as bad people. And at the same time I _may_ have empathised more of their bad traits to the extreme as many fanfics had. Honestly it was either them or just some OC I made just for this and it's not that likely I'll be using them as part of the main story afterwards. That and I rather not waste a few chapters to build it up to this when I want to move the plot forward.**

 **The part with Pyrrha at the end really came randomly with the part where I somehow got to something about dreams. In RWBY, we don't actually know much about her aside that she's famous, strong and has a thing for Jaune because he sees her as her before anything else (that and it doesn't help that she comes as a bit of a mother-hen towards him) among other it's mostly the same for Nora and Ren themselves. Jaune had a lot more character building as the main side-character lead of the series.  
**

 **Therefore I thought to myself what does Pyrrha dream of? And that led me to remember the thing she had with destiny and how she had a belief that she would become a great, powerful Huntress to protect people no matter what her wishes are. And that this was her fate and destiny no matter what she does. On one hand, she knows what she's doing which is nice and all compared to the vague 'I want to be a hero' Jaune but on the other...she doesn't really have any 'dreams' aside from that though it's more like she's a bit delusional about not having any dreams and control over her life on what she would become considering one of her wishes was to meet someone like Jaune.**

 **Also: If any of you wish to comment more on my grammar, please at _least_ point out the grammar mistakes so I can fix them. It's like shouting at a person that they're doing something wrong and only doing so continuously over and over again expecting they will automatically know what your thinking of to correct themselves that way.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: I own nothing of RWBY which belongs to Rooster Teeth and the late Monty Owm.**

* * *

 **Chapter 6**

 **Grimm Tidings (Part 2)**

The first thing that he noticed was the _burning_ smell. Remembering that fire was one of the more effective tools against Grimm that was available to non-Hunters, he dismissed it easily and looked around wildly to try and find out what he could do. In such a situation like this, there were often two or three most important directives to do.

First was to protect the civilians. Every death was another loss and every saved life was a victory. Second was to kill the Grimm. Nuff said about the importance of that and third to coordinate with other Hunters to complete the first and second directives.

"Damn what do I do?" he cursed, "I don't have enough information to know what to do."

Thus he panicked more than he should in this situation as most novices would if they were thrown from the pan to the fire. It certainly didn't help that in either ignorance or arrogance, he never thought of such a situation happening to the town he was residing in.

Information was key in situations like this and he quite literally had none except that Grimm were attacking the town and that he was ordered to stop them and save as many people as possible. First things first…he needed to find Pyrrha which also meant finding the other Hunters to coordinate with them as well.

He hoped that the guards could hold on before everyone dies from the Grimm.

Rushing down the street, Jaune made a turn to one of the gates of the town where it was likely there would be some battle, and therefore Hunter to exchange information with. But at the same time, he paused once or twice seeing the true destruction the Grimm can cause.

Houses were burnt down in desperation and ruined with corpses scattered here and there, ripped into pieces with some of them still holding onto their weapons while others were in cupboards and under tables and chairs as if in hopes the Grimm couldn't sense them. The sight itself almost made him vomit but he held on.

Things will get worse from now on. All he could do was save as many people as possible.

"Damnit…I don't have anything to put out fires nor save the dead" he muttered before moving on from the scene and closer to the gates.

Upon seeing the gates on one side of town, he could see easily a dozen Hunters and otherwise all armed with weapons of all kinds trying to hold back the horde of Grimm and were slowly failing with each one being slain with time. And that didn't compare to the guards that were _throwing_ themselves at the Grimm to stall for time or be a distraction for the Hunters.

Seeing such a sight, Jaune froze on the spot and didn't know whether he should charge in and fight with them or not.

Pyrrha wasn't here and he needed to find her!

"Jaune? You okay buddy?" asked one the guards that he remembered sometimes worked in shifts as the gate-keepers of the town. He couldn't remember his name right now as he muttered, "Yeah. Not sure what I'm supposed to do."

He looked at the gates and back at the guard who replied with a slap on his back, "Get back deeper in town. Use that Aura Soldier skill of yours to help protect the civilians. The main defence and safety point will be at the guild. Got it?"

"Yeah" he nodded before turning the other way to do just that.

…But paused before saying, "You better live through this."

"You too" the guard said grimly.

With an order in mind, information of what he should do, Jaune's mind raced of what he could do and how he could do it. The use of the Aura Soldier skill would be crucial to protecting as many people as he could. Theatrically he could deploy six of them at once but they would be no better than an F rank Hunter and be a waste of aura when destroyed. And at the same time he also needed Aura to help fight as well meaning he couldn't spend his entire aura on the skill alone.

"Two Aura Soldiers…30% each meaning I have 40% Aura to do what I need to do" he grumbled to himself as he ran pass the empty streets hoping to find someone or anyone to save.

Therefore Jaune Arc did not hesitate when he later saw a nearby member of the town was being chased by a couple of Beowolves.

"Hunter?" the man looked confused for a moment the look of fear and hope was combined on his face, "A Hunter! Help me! The Grimm are chasing after me! God damn it, save me!"

With those words, the man ran towards him and at the same time due the attention of the Grimm that were chasing him were shifted onto Jaune without any hesitation though he had a feeling that the Grimm would likely kill the man before attacking him. That was something that was unacceptable!

Therefore, he was giving this his all.

"Deploy activate" he shouted, rushing out with sword and shield towards the man hoping that he was fast enough in activating the skill in time to save him.

 **[Aura Soldier has activated]**

 **[Please select pre-set to be deployed]**

 **[Please select number of Aura Soldiers to be deployed]**

"Set! Knight-1! Spearman-1!" he cried out as white aura was spat out of his body into two chunks.

Two figures appeared half formed as he rushed their construction; he forced them to rush forward with him because even a _second_ is too precious to waste right now. He didn't have that luxury of preparing for a second or even a moment in this life and death situation when it involved the life of an innocent hanging onto whether he succeeded or not.

"Charge! Intercept the attack!" he ordered to the faster of his currently available Aura Soldiers.

Spearman-1 and Knight-1 in response to the order immediately charged in. They passed by the civilian who was still screaming in fear of the creatures of the abyss behind him in less than a second before clashing. In this timeframe, both Aura Soldiers completely formed with weapons to bear against the Grimm.

"Thank you. Thank you" the civilian sobbed a bit before running off behind him. He didn't look back. He had other problems. But at the same time Jaune didn't blame the man for his fear, _he_ was still afraid of the Grimm and he was certain most Hunters were as well.

"Don't worry about it" he said to the now distance man.

To not fear the Grimm…was foolish and would lead to death by underestimating any of them. Terror is something that you must not give yourself into as a Hunter but at the same time, fear is a healthy tool that tells you the dangers around you and whether or not you should just run to save your life.

He knew better than most the benefit of knowing fear.

"Let's do this…" he muttered as his Aura Soldiers and the Grimm were about to clash.

From what he could tell, he was fairly certain that the Grimm were Beowolves. And in total there were three of them and from what he remembered from Pyrrha, they were certainly not the Major type that were D rank threats and instead were E rank threats meaning that they were around his level of strength.

White and black crashed into each other.

 _Seeerrrrzziiiecccchh!_

Knight-1 using its shield immediately moved in first, blocking the first blow that was a swipe from the Beowolf. A second swipe came from the second Beowolf which was also blocked before Spearman-1 took that chance to stab one of them and at the same time ripped the second Beowolf's arm off.

" **Goooorrrrrrr!** "

Growling from the shock and pain, the second Beowolf leaped back but in its place the third Browolf managed to hit Spearman-1 which blocked using its spear but was highly inferior than Knight-1 in parrying attacks away.

Realising that at this rate he would probably waste aura in summoning another Aura Soldier if one of them was destroyed now, Jaune charged into the fight as well. Unlike months before, he was actually a bit skilled in fighting, though not on the same level of his Aura Soldiers. They had a growth AI that was currently automatically allowing them to weave between blocking and counter-attacking in the case of Knight-1.

At this rate, it might take another few seconds from that Aura Soldier to kill the first Beowolf. The second Beowolf was running back into the battle without an arm and the third was currently supressing Spearman-1 through sheer force mainly because its combat AI was less developed than Knight-1 in combat and at the same time was designed towards offense before defence.

"Aura Charge."

He could feel a _slight_ dip in his aura reserves (but not enough to pay attention to it) as he imbued his sword with aura. The edge of it to sharpened several times over as he slashed at the nearest Grimm which consequentially was the one attacking Spearman-1.

Ripp _ppseeeccct-!_

However the attack was blocked and at that moment he felt there was a _fear_ that he would die because of this.

He didn't want to die.

"aaaaaAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Not caring much for form or even proper skill, Jaune attacked rapidly as much as he could. He placed his hopes on that a rapid series of attacks could put the Beowolf down before it could kill him. Seven slashes in, the Grimm lost an arm. Fourteen slashes in, he managed to stun it and at the twentieth slash, he managed to kill the Grimm.

" **Goooaa** aaarrr…"

Looking to his side, he could see that Knight-1 was finishing off the Beowolf it was fighting and Spearman-1 seemed to have charged ahead and killed the last of the three Grimm with ease. Considering it had time to go on the offensive rather than be forced to defend from any attacks, Jaune had expected those results.

All of this took a total of 12 seconds.

And with that done, two messages flared up in his vision from his A.U.R.A system.

 **[Total Slain Beowolves: 3]**

 **[Total Slain Grimm: 3]**

"Three down, how many more to go?" he sighed.

As he progressed more into town, he started listening carefully for battles and destruction in general for him to go to and aid anyone still alive and kill any Grimm nearby. So far, there was nothing nearby strangely enough.

Although he was hoping that it was because they were early in escaping rather than him being too late on saving them.

Feeling his stomach squirm he muttered, "Think positively…" before rushing off in a random direction while keeping an ear out for anything and everything that could clue him in on any ongoing battles.

With this process, 5 minutes passed before he managed to find another pair of Hunters facing down a rather large Ursa, struggling against it. It was…rather easy to tell that they were fighting.

"Hazel, we're not dealing a lot of damage to it!" the Huntress screamed while unloading her sniper rifle rapidly while reloading several times in succession.

The Huntsman named Hazel had brown hair and a mostly brown colour scheme in a military style was someone a bit older than him in age but held a great-sword in both hands which seemed to have a gun addition built in it which he was unloading rapidly into the Grimm.

"Keep. Shooting. Less. Talking. Lavender" Hazel gritted out. Jaune could tell that he was getting irritated but that didn't stop him from firing rapidly as much as he could considering his sword-gun was of a lower calibre than his partner's.

"Not my fault that we ended up fighting this Ursa-hey, is that another Hunter?" Lavender spoke in surprise before running around the charge of said Grimm before unloading another clip into it.

Raising an eyebrow Hazel took the chance to look at his direction and asked, "Jaune? Huh."

"You guys need some help?" Jaune decided to help. He didn't want to impose into a battle that they could handle after all. That and doing so might cause accidents to happen if he just interfered without thinking.

" _YEAH!_ " Lavender decided to answer while switching her sniper rifle into dual axes and started cutting at the Ursa which was thankfully slower than her. Looking at her more closely, she had purple hair and was in one of those strange 'battle-dresses' he had been seeing more recently.

Rolling his eyes at the sight and the probable thoughts Jaune was having, Hazel added, "It would help if you can. If not, head more to the guild, I'm pretty sure there are some other Grimm that got pass us when we were stalling this guy."

Deciding his answer already, Jaune was about to speak as-

"RooA **AAAARR!** "

The Ursa Grimm roared before using used its clawed arm to swipe down at the pair of Hunters. They dodged, both leaping back but all of them saw the results of the attack which had the ground dented from the effort.

Roaring a second time, the Ursa charged towards Lavender in particular who was still unbalanced from the ground shaking a split second before.

"Shit!" Hazel cursed before charging straight at the Ursa. Jaune knew that even if he sent his Aura Soldiers in to do anything now, they wouldn't get there in time. But at the same time, he had the time to set up a flank attack at least.

"Flank it!" he barked out the command as both Aura Soldiers acted in his name.

CLANG!

Hazel and the Ursa clashed and the former was knocked back by sheer force. However Lavender recovered no a second later as she seemed to jump, leaped off the ground before bouncing off Hazel's shoulders and towards the still charging Ursa before screaming with fury.

"Multi-Strike COMBO!"

Her axes covered in purple aura, shot out light-like beams of attacks that were too quick for him to follow as she stabbed possibly dozens of times into the back of the Grimm. He could see a sort of 'bleeding' effect where black ooze came out where the stabs were and the Huntress dropped to her knee in exhaustion.

She was no able to fall it.

The Ursa turned to attack her. His Aura Soldiers were there to block the first two attacks thankfully possibly saving her life though he could tell that his Aura Soldiers were straining to block such a powerful strike.

"Damn it Lav! AURA SMASH!"

The Huntsman let his aura cover his sword before exploding it onto the Grimm. Jaune thought that this could be the finishing blow but his expectations were not met once again as a claw smacked Hazel back causing him to cough some blood from the impact.

"HAZEL!"

The Ursa was considered a D rank threat for a reason and Jaune was sure that the pair of Hunters who were also E rank like him and were still at a disadvantage when it came with dealing with Grimm on the level of Ursa or stronger. The Grimm shrugged the blows that Lavender was having to its back and jumped up, knocking the Huntresses off balance-

"Ahh!"

-Before causing her to be knocked into the wall of a building with a kick, crashing her through a window.

"Lav!" the Hunter shouted before striking at the Ursa which did not react in time and was cut deeply but not before the claw gazed the Hunters damaging his armour by a large margin.

At the same time, he was prepared to go into battle as well, already rushing with his shield out to block a blow that would kill him if not for it. But at the same time his thoughts were becoming more flexible in what he could in this battle.

How should he attack? Should be charge in or block first? How should his Aura Soldiers react? Should they aid him in blocking or counter-attack using him as bait? Should Spearman-1 be used to attack the Grimm directly or be a distraction? Should Knight-1 be the main defence or should be take that role?

Those were the thoughts that were spinning inside his head right now.

And he was surprisingly coherent in what he could and could not do and how to plan around and through those limitations. It was even easier to take down this Grimm because he had a form of back-up in Hazel and Lavender (when the latter recovers at least) and expanded the methods he could use.

-If they would trust him of course.

The Ursa Grimm was a D rank threat and they were struggling against it. His, their current abilities could only allow them to handle E rank threats with reasonable success and this was pushing their limits a bit.

He didn't want to know what he could do if there were C rank threats like Ursa Majors or even those rare Death Stalkers (more dangerous despite being the same level of threat) in town. The only person who could take them on was probably Pyrrha else a group of Hunters together.

"I'm sending my Aura Soldiers in guys" he said.

Mentally overriding the movements of both Aura Soldiers, he mentally set a series of commands for them to follow. While not entirely as flexible as letting their AI work on solutions, there was less of a chance that his aura creations would just take a hit or let someone take a hit because they were never programmed to do so in any fashion.

For Knight-1, it would naturally take the bulk of the blows as much as it could and would primarily be distracting the Ursa Grimm as much as possible. Spearman-1 on the other hand had the enviable task of trying to kill the Grimm aside from distracting it more of course. Better to stall and let someone else succeed than to go for the kill and fail.

"Right, my Aura Soldiers will-CRAP!" Jaune's eyes widened at the sight of a certain something just as the same time as the other two Hunters turned to look at the same time.

-And that something was another Ursa heading towards them.

"Shit."

"Fuck."

Thankfully it wasn't an Ursa Major or anything higher rank than that.

Sighing in some relief that it was _not_ another Ursa Major he had to face but at the same time a bit terrified of what he was thinking, Jaune shouted out, "I'll take this one!"

"Got it!" Lavender thumbed up.

"Don't die" Hazel nodded before facing their own Ursa.

He nodded without a word before changing the target of his two Aura Soldiers to the second Ursa on sight and ran off to fight _that_ Grimm and at the same time hoped the two battles were separate and not combined into one. It was a hassle for most to fight together when they had no idea of each other's' capabilities and so on.

A wrong move and you could easily attack a fellow Hunter at the worst possible time.

Jaune commanded Knight-1 to draw aggro from the second Ursa away from the first and in the next second the Aura Soldier smashed its body into the Grimm before Spearman-1 also charged straight in and pierced its spear into it, staggering it back before rushing away back to him as he ran away from the other fight.

" **ROOOAAAARR!** "

Ignoring the pair behind him and believing that anything happening behind him won't screw him over (and isn't that a scary thought), Jaune focused on the Grimm in front of him with his mind racing to take it down as fast as possible.

"Now how am I going to do this?" he wondered.

Most of his plans hitched on having some sort of aid because neither he nor his current Aura Soldiers had the power to slay the Grimm in front of him. There was a rank difference between the parties and despite how more intelligent he was compared to a Grimm this young, it didn't matter if he didn't have the tools to kill it.

"Looks like I have no choice" he grimaced activating 'Aura Charge' on Spearman-1. Another 20% of his Aura was drained making his total drop down to just fewer than 20%. Right now he couldn't afford to be hit from the amount of Aura he had left.

A single solid would kill him.

Else his semblance would have decided to save him, but it was completely unreliable and he couldn't depend on it.

However at the same time, with the sacrifice of 20% of his Aura instead of 30% for another E rank Aura Soldier (And at the same time risking his life even more), he had gained a D rank Aura Soldier in the form of Spearman-1. This… _should_ allow him to defeat this enemy with a chance better than before.

Rolling his arm he commented, "Hopefully I won't need to _upgrade_ Knight-1 as well."

That would be bad. If he did then his Aura reserves would sit at a steady 0% which while not fatal, however would leave him exhausted, extremely vulnerable and on the verge of death's door.

Glaring at the Ursa which was pounding on Knight-1 (while it was lasting, he doubt it would be long till it would break), he shouted, "Let's do this!"

He had a plan and it was going to _work_. It just needed him to be at a slight bit of risk, that's all. No one said that most of his plans were sane or safe in any case before and he doubt they would be saying that to him now.

Partly manually controlling them, he had Kinght-1 leaps back from the attacks from the Ursa Grimm before activating 'Aura Enhancement' on himself as well as 'Aura Charge' on his shield. Spearman-1 was moving a bit to the side under his command as well. If this was going to work, he would have to do so in one shot.

This was a second before he stopped the attacks from the Ursa and at the same time due to his enhancement, caused a knocked-back effect from a seemingly almost immoveable object in front of it, i.e. him.

BANG!

He took a step back from the impact.

BANG!

Two more steps back were further taken reducing the impact of the blow even more.

 **BANG!**

With the third strike, Jaune was unprepared for the sheer force that went into it. The amount of strength the Ursa Grimm had was comparable to Pyrrha and to a lesser extent also Sky and yet it was _only_ considered a D rank threat despite possibly capable of matching Hunters of C rank in pure ability itself.

But at the same time, Jaune realised why it was still only considered a D rank threat and even more so, why the older Grimm were so much more dangerous.

Most Grimm are stupid and didn't notice much in comparison on hitting the first thing in front of them. Therefore, it was surprisingly too easy for him to slip both his Aura Soldiers away from the battle and to get away from the vision of the Grimm before attacking at this precise moment it let its guard down for the last time.

"Attack."

It was a simple word but at the same time an execution sentence.

There was no mercy from his Aura Soldiers. Knight-1 stabbed its sword in the flank of the Ursa Grimm and at the same time Spearman-1 was using impressive technique to slash and hack off the limbs of the enemy in front of it. The fact that the former had the Grimm pinned down literally to the ground and the latter was moving faster than even he could in small bursts of speed almost made him feel pity for the Grimm.

Almost.

Actually…he didn't. Not at all.

A few seconds later, the two Aura Soldiers killed the Ursa and was confirmed on his A.U.R.A system.

 **[Total Slain Ursa: 1]**

 **[Total Slain Grimm: 4]**

The fight was surprisingly shorter than he expected. Counting the amount of time it took him and the manifestation of his first skill to kill said Grimm, he noticed that it was at best 10 seconds in total. That amount of time was extremely short to him, who had yet not experienced a lot of these kinds of situations.

"Hopefully the other two had the same amount as luck as me."

And yet the most pressing thing he could think of was how… _well_ his plan came through. Abomination of the Abyss or not, it looked like a Grim of this age wasn't at all smart enough to know and plan around unexpected things. Still, he wouldn't let his guard down; he couldn't afford to let his guard down on this and in the future.

"Pyrrha would kill me if I did" he mused on that point again.

He didn't want to be another Hunter who died because he underestimated the Grimm in any shape or form. Especially not after the rumours of a Killer Rabbit Grimm was confirmed to have killed a platoon of guards when they approached too close to it.

Turning around he shouted, "Hey! You guys finished yet?"

Looking over, he saw that Hazel had his great-sword impaled in the chest of their Ursa and he was repeatedly firing his gun into its gut. Lavender was doing the same but with her sniper rifle to its head and it just took the two of them a few more seconds to kill it as it squirmed.

"Well that took care of it" Hazel commented before looking at him, "Thanks for taking the other Ursa. It would be a pain to fight both of them."

Lavender smacked her partner on the arm, "You _don't_ need to say that. We would've been perfectly fine."

"Weren't you smashed through a window?" Jaune asked Lavender.

"Yes" Hazel nodded.

"HEY!"

"Like I said, we probably would've struggled a lot more if not for you" continued Hazel while grabbing his great-sword and pulling it out of the quickly decaying corpse of the Grimm he just killed.

Lavender protested in that moment, stomping her feet, " _You didn't say that at all_!"

The Huntsman blinked, slightly surprised and spoke, "Yes I did. Anyway we don't have time to stop here and speak when this town is being invaded. Jaune, I _think_ Pyrrha is on duty on taking care of the stronger Grimm at one of the gates."

Jaune looked surprised especially considering he didn't see her, though she may be just at the other gate the town had.

"Yeah" Lavender agreed nodding and arms crosed, "Pyrrha is a _beast_ when she gets serious. And they say that you _train_ with her? No wonder why you got stronger so quickly."

"You've…actually seen her recently? Can you tell me where she went? I need to meet up with her" Jaune asked before stopping and wondering, "But…what do you mean by her being a 'beast'?"

Hazel pointed to the side and the series of half destroyed buildings that he seemed to have missed. He could see partly the process of the battle to which it seemed that Pyrrha was once more facing multiple Grimm at once. He could see the sheer… _force_ she had in fighting. He knew better than anyone else in this town of what Pyrrha was capable of.

"Oh."

…And boy did she let loose.

He could tell where the twisted metal that branched out into massive spikes that could kill people was the work of her semblance and he bet that she managed to kill a lot of the Grimm using this method. It said more that there was a _lack_ of metal than not.

Of course, her weapon and shield were deadly weapons in themselves.

"Yeah" he sighed, " _That's_ Pyrrha getting serious all right. I suppose it helped her a lot when there was enough metal around for her to bend to her will."

"Agreed" Lavender shivered to the words, "Her semblance is _frightening_. It makes me want to get rid of all the metal in my outfit no matter the cost. What the hell kind of semblance allows her that much power over metal?"

"Well to be fair, it's a lot less effective here compared to say in a city and so much can only do so much" he shrugged, "Anyway do you two want me to help you take down Grimm?"

"What about your partner?" Hazel asked.

He shrugged, "Pyrrha is a _lot_ stronger than I am and can take care of herself just fine. Not to be arrogant or selfish here, but we talked about what we should do if separated and she decided it would always be better if I was with other Hunters can trying to find her alone."

"I see…"

"Yeah, so shall we clear this place up first? A couple flares of our aura should cause some Grimm to seek us" he added as the two Hunters agreed.

He hoped that everything will be all right in the end.

It wouldn't.

But he still hoped.

-o-

The battle was a never-ending loop of killing and avoiding to be killed. Pyrrha noted that while stressful in that she needed to keep an eye out for the other Hunters fighting alongside her, she was obligated to keep the stronger Grimm out of the town. That was her role as the sole C rank Huntress in town that is.

 _Dodge Left. Bash using shield. Stab and slice. Kill confirmed._

 **[Total Slain Grimm: 127]**

And at the same time, she really didn't need to kill all of the Grimm in front of her, as long as she stalled enough for the other Hunters in nearby areas to finally arrive and aid them all in extermination he rest of the Grimm. However, every single skill she managed was one less for the rest of the Hunters and townsfolk to deal with.

 _She didn't want to think about how many already died_.

This town was nameless. Considering its position to the capital of Vale as well as how most towns like these usually get destroyed in this way, there was no need for a name aside from the assigned name the council gave it to keep track of logistics.

Area G-67 of Vale and Town-34 was the recorded name at least. The naming was impersonal, practical and as little emotional attachment to it as much as possible.

 _Block with shield. Switch to rifle mode. Fire, guide bullets using semblance. Kill confirmed._

 **[Total Slain Grimm: 128]**

She didn't like the way Vale as a whole shrugged off whole towns being destroyed but she supposed they had to. Vale had the most human settlements among the 4 Kingdoms but with roughly the same amount of Hunters as the other Kingdoms. Due to this, the ratio between Hunters and civilians was quite low and the resource to train and sustain them over such a large area was difficult.

They weren't Atlas with their dust technology advancement and the ice cold to protect them.

They weren't like Mistral which had giant powerful clans working together in a smaller space to drive off the Grimm with force and grit.

Nor were they Vacuo that despite being a mostly lawless place had the best natural defences against the Grimm to protect them.

Vale was the middle ground of the Kingdoms, not having decent technology, decent coordination between its people and a decent natural defence to protect them till now. While not having the exceptional advantages the other Kingdoms resulted in, they didn't have the noticeable disadvantages the other Kingdoms had as well.

 _Counter-spin. Dodge gazing charge. Smash leg down. Fire rifle. Confirmed kill._

 **[Total Slain Grimm: 129]**

"Just how many more Grimm are out there?" a fellow Hunter asked with a tired voice. Despite needing to be covered several times already, he had done decently though she chalked it up to his skill or semblance that allowed a mimic illusion for distraction purposes.

Counting the numbers in her head and estimating the best and worst possible answers, she stated, "Around 300 if we're lucky and if we're not, around 3000 though most of them will be the young and easily killed Grimm no matter the species."

She heard a collective groan from the two teams of Hunters nearby. They had obviously heard her but that did little to the morale which was on an all-time low. It was possible that the rest of the Hunters would drop dead from aura exhaustion than by the hands of the Grimm.

She grimaced at the fighting styles of most of the Hunters here. They were the flashy, high input and high output types of fighting styles that while decent against maybe a dozen Grimm in a row but was quite useless against hundreds or more. Pyrrha checked her own aura levels; it was at a decent 87% so far though as stronger Grimm came out…it would drop considerably.

 _Side-step to right. Use semblance to crash down shield. Decapitated foe. Confirmed kill._

 **[Total Slain Grimm: 130]**

The only good thing she thought was that she didn't need to actively use her semblance so much right now. When inside the town and while running towards one of the gates being sieged, she was forced to…improvise to save a few civilians lives.

Although it caused a pair of Hunters to possibly know what her semblance does to some extent, it mattered little compared to actual lives. She could worry about the future and any counter-measures if the word got out later. But on the matter of worrying…she couldn't help but worry about Jaune right now.

 _Pushing forward. Switched to Xiphos mode. Cut off target's arm. Spin and sliced target in half. Confirmed kill._

 **[Total Slain Grimm: 131]**

Jaune…despite making a great deal of progress in a mere three months of active body training would not be suited to this type of battle. The large number of Grimm would force him to respond with numbers but at the same time weaken his individual power. And at the same time, his personal experience to battling personally was quite low to the point he would be overwhelmed by numbers right now.

That was something to think about correcting on a later date.

Not to mention when C rank threats come out, even she would struggle to take one down seeing her fighting style was geared towards multiple human targets instead of Grimm and was designed to wear down enemies instead of finishing them off instantly. Jaune was in an even worse positon compared to her in retrospect.

She knew about the inner working of his Aura Soldiers more than anyone here without the actual skill could know due to a lot of research. And the effects of his altered skill thanks to his semblance were potent and limited at the same time.

 _Dodge right. Dodge further right. Block attack. Throw shield. Slash at enemy._

Jaune would probably never be able to say create a dozen Aura Soldiers to casually sweep enemies up like some in history did using sheer _aura_ to power squads of Hunter level creations. But he _would_ be able to possibly create a small elite force of Aura Soldiers that would completely obey him. In a 'full' size team of 4, having a possible extra three allies or more would be…invaluable especially if they were of a high quality.

"Still it _would_ be nice to know if he's okay right now" she muttered.

One of the features of the A.U.R.A system that was transferred from its scroll predecessor was the ability to tell the Aura levels of team-mates registered. This meant that she knew the Aura levels of Jaune which was at a low 20%. Normally she would panic if it was any other person but that was the effect of his skill unfortunately.

Aura Soldier was just an extremely aura intensive skill to use. Even more so in Jaune's case, considering the skill instead took out percentages of his aura instead of numerical amounts though time would only tell if this effect would pay off in the end.

 _Use semblance to direct shield flight. Switch to rifle mode. Fire rifle. Fire rifle. Fire rifle. Confirmed kills._

 **[Total Slain Grimm: 133]**

Focusing back on the battle, hoping that her partner can take care of himself, she made another push to attempt to drive back the Grimm trying to get pass her.

" _DEATH STALKERS!_ " someone screamed.

She hoped that he made the smart decision not to come here and risk his life.

-o-

"Finish them off!" he shouted, narrowly dodging an attack that would've killed him if hit and completely risking his life at the moment.

On one side Knight-1 smashed its shield into the side of the Boarbatusk and continued smashing until the Grimm was nothing but black paste into the ground. On the other, Spearman-1 was batting a Beowolf and was winning, stabbing rapidly until it eventually won its fight as well.

Meanwhile he was dealing with a particularly difficult Boarbatusk. No, he wasn't being defeated by probably the weakest type of Grimm out there nor was he struggling that much. It was more due to how it was surprisingly quick on its feet on dodging any attempts of him hitting it.

Sighing, he mentally ordered and caused Spearman-1 to do an impressive leap strike which easily pierced through the hide of the Boarbatusk, killing it instantly.

 **[Total Slain Grimm: 58]**

Seeing the total number of Grimm he killed in the last hour, he shuddered a bit at the numbers. Something of this level would've been considered at _least_ a D rank mission at minimum.

"This better pay well…" he mumbled before scanning the area before moving on.

Jaune knew that he wasn't a frontline fighter nor was he someone who was good at racking up kills without end. The fact that he had killed enough Grimm for a possible D rank mission was disturbing at the very least. More so when you consider that there are many other Hunters in town that are better at killing Grimm than him with possibly greater kill counts than him right now.

And even more disturbing of the possible kill counts of those defending the gates that ran both ways through the town. The blonde was fairly certain that his partner would've at least killed twice as much Grimm as him right now.

Although he knew that this wasn't some sick competition.

"Area's clear!" Hazel shouted off to the side.

Due to the fact that he was capable of creating Aura Soldiers and thus was worth more than a single ordinary Hunter, he was mostly sent solo against the Grimm with his skill aiding him. The other two went together mainly because they were long time partners and knew each enough to complement each other in battle.

That and they needed to cover more ground. Not that the town itself was too large. Jaune was quite sure that they alone had covered one side of town entirely by now.

"We should head to the guild then" he said considering that they did their best in reducing the damage to the residential side of town.

That and Jaune was sure that everyone was at the safety zone else dead right now aside from fellow Hunters still fighting. There was really no point sticking here when they could be directly protecting people and saving lives that way.

"Agreed" Hazel nodded while switching to rifle mode on his weapon.

"Sure" Lavender chipped.

Nodding in turn to the pair of Hunters, Jaune started jogging in a direction but paused and asked, "Does…anyone know _where_ we are? I know where the guild is but I haven't been in this part of town long enough to know the ins and outs of it."

By design choice, the town was not as symmetrical as you would think. In some ways it was like a maze the deeper you went in where roads closed and buildings stacked either too loosely or too tightly. And it didn't help that the trio had been fighting, running around this place for a while.

"What about the map?" the violet-haired huntress asked.

He shook his head, "Not working properly right now without the location feature. Unless you _literally_ want a map of this town which no one these days actually use. "

A groan from Hazel later, Jaune continued by saying, "We _could_ literally just go west as long you're fine with roof hoping."

"Fine with me. As long as no one looks up my skirt" Lavender muttered.

" _That's_ your fault for spending your lien on a combat _skirt_ of all things" Hazel retorted.

Sending a glare to her partner and ignoring the bemused look that Jaune was sending their way, the Huntress said, "I _have_ to wear something fashionable you know. Axes and sniper rifles aren't 'cute' at all no matter how much you want me to spend more lien so my weapons has a combined giant axe mode."

Hearing that, Jaune coughed.

What was with Hunters and their transforming weapons? All he had a sword and a shield and they were not transformable at all! Sure having them transformable would make it easier for him to carry them but there was a point where it went from convenient to just bothersome to deal with maintenance to make sure it all worked.

Like a sniper scythe. He didn't even _want_ to think about the maintenance issues such a weapon could bring him.

Now…he just had to get to the guild. Hopefully Gred was fine and safe while complaining about shit as usual.

-o-

Gred (no last name), was not safe at all though that was more because he was fighting outside the so called 'safety zone' instead of cowering in fear of the Grimm. He wasn't even a damn Hunter!

Of course that didn't matter much when he had his trusty hammer at hand.

" _COME AT ME DAMN BEASTS!_ "

-o-

In many cases, _seconds_ can change the tide of the fight on a personal level while _hours_ can change the fate of a Kingdom from surviving a disaster or being destroyed by it. However, for the matter of a town this size, _minutes_ are what change the predestined outcome. This was something that Jaune Arc knew.

And it was the reason why he managed with the help of Hazel and Lavender to snatch of three more wondering Hunters that had nothing better to do than to defend the inside of the town. Naturally, protecting the place where the remaining civilians were alive was more important and they easily agreed to follow his pace.

"You okay Sandra?" asked Lavender.

Said Huntress dressed in mainly yellow outfit sniffed while wordlessly nodding. Jaune while noting that her weapon of choice was a simple rapier didn't want her on the frontline and rather on support. With more and stronger Grimm slipping through from the other gate defenders, things were getting worse.

He didn't comment on her state of mind due to the recent death of her partner and focused more on scouting the place and positioning his Aura Soldiers in place to take a hit if needed to save the life of a fellow Hunter. No amount of extra aura was worth the life of another in this kind of situation. At least, he didn't want to make such a choice.

"Hopefully the guild is standing when we get there" another Huntsman said. He didn't catch his name or his partner's but it didn't matter right now.

Said partner replied, "Hopefully because we might as well abandon this town if it isn't."

Thinking of his time in this town, where he started off, Jaune couldn't help but growl a bit at the thought of just abandoning this place because of something like that.

"Enough talk" he snarled, "We need to keep an eye out for any Grimm."

There was really no time for any talk right now when everything was on the line.

Due to the duration of an hour and a half of waking up, seeing his town in flames and death with time only making things worse, Jaune Arc was not a happy camper. He was not happy at all that his partner was probably risking his life even more than him and he was not happy at all that his life was crashing down around him.

Part of him was pretty content with his current lifestyle. And it was ending right now.

He was certainly avoiding looking at Sandra who lost her partner and trying not to superimpose herself onto him. He didn't even want to _think_ of what he would or could do if he lost his partner like she did.

"How close are we to guild now?" asked Hazel who just finished off another Beowolf that was trying to flank them from behind.

"Around…" Jaune paused for a moment, "A minute until we get there. If we rush, half a minute but we'll be opening ourselves up for more risks in being attacked."

Nodding, Hazel replied with, "Better rush then. We don't know what happened to the guild while we weren't there."

"True."

"Got it."

"I'll send my Aura Soldiers ahead first then" he replied.

The group of six Hunters rushed ahead with speed. Jaune made sure that his two still active Aura Soldiers were rushing ahead of the group in order to draw even a bit of bait towards them instead of the rest of the group. No one wanted to be with someone who considered the lives of their fellow Hunters less than of something like an Aura Soldier.

It took them half a minute.

 _Thirty Seconds_.

And what they found was-

"Crap" Hazel swore.

Over two _dozen_ Grimm just on first sight. Looking around more, he mentally noted that it was worse than he thought on first glance. Make that _three_ dozen Grimm. At least.

 _Easily_.

The large numbers of creatures of the abyss were surrounding the half destroyed guild building. Corpses both whole and in pieces were shattered around the place as clear signs of battles were marked on the walls, floors and in the line of destruction all over the place.

" _Oh my god_ " Lavender whispered to the side, weapon already armed and aimed for a battle that had not been started yet.

He wanted to think that it was the number of Grimm that was largest problem for them right now but that would be delusional. _No_ , thought Jaune, the problem wasn't in the number of Grimm but rather quality of them and which types they were facing.

There was only one type of flying Grimm out there that was confirmed to exist completely and utterly.

"Nevermores" he gritted his teeth in the _frustration_ that he wouldn't be able to do much in this battle due to a lack of ranged attacks in his arsenal. Even if he brought out his Gunner type Aura Soldier he was designing, he wasn't sure if they would be effective at all.

And even worse was that half of the Grimm up there were Nevermore Majors meaning that they had aged enough to gain the ability to shoot feathers at their enemies. A flying enemy? Durable but annoying to deal with if you're careful. The same flying enemy with a ranged attack? A nightmare to keep track and deal with.

However the series of bad news didn't end there.

In this kind of world, the bad news never just ends there. Despite Nevermores being one of the horrid killers that civilians could never face against, they didn't not have that much destructive power compared to even an Ursa.

And speaking of Ursai…

"Four of them to the side, prowling around and one of them is a major as well" one of the Huntsmen grunted.

Scanning around the area some more, his partner added with a slight sigh, "Not to mention the rest of the Boarbatusks and Beowolves around the place. I don't even want to know how many of them are majors or even alphas as well but we have to deal with them."

"You two want to deal with them?" asked Jaune, "I can probably take the Ursai considering I have Aura Soldiers while Hazel, Lavender and Sandra are more suited for the Nevermores considering their ranged options."

The pair of Huntsman looked at each other and nodded while shifting their weapons into gear. One was using a chain-sword whip while the other had a strange combination of a hammer and axe that eluded his knowledge of how it worked except that it was better for grounded enemies.

"Good luck" one of them said before the other added, "Don't die out there."

Both Huntsmen turned and ran towards the ground type Grimm that was surrounding the Guild building.

Looking over to the trio of Hunters that he had just ordered against the Nevermores, Hazel said while patting his weapon, "We'll take care of them. It'll be easy considering Lavender's sniper and Sandra's rifle along with my own."

"That and I can support you from afar as well Jaune" added Lavender causing him to sigh in relief.

The three started to rush off to the side; Lavender in particular was taking a position on one of the rooftops and was taking pot shots rapidly as the other two were luring the Nevermores closer to the ground to smack them.

Seeing them all go to work, Jaune flexed his neck before stretching his fingers outward while looking at the four Ursai. As a baseline, they were normally D rank threats with Ursa Majors being C rank threats, the same as Nevermores. However while the latter got such a threat rating due to its flight capabilities, the Ursai obtained such a threat due to two things.

Power and Durability.

They were tough to take down and not to mention they could easily kill a Hunter by a casual swipe if they were not careful enough. Such an enemy was hellish to face against if you weren't strong or fast enough to deal with them. Else teams of Hunters had to work together to whittle and take them down.

Unfortunately Jaune had neither right now aside from his own Aura Soldiers. He knew that despite Lavender telling him that she had his back, she would already have her hands full taking care of the two dozen Nevermores flying around. Not to mention trying to keep them from interfering from the two Huntsmen's fight and his own as well.

Distractions would kill, especially right now.

 _One second in_.

Drawing his sword and experimenting with his aura a bit, he sighed considering he _literally_ only had 10% of his Aura left to use. Despite his healthy amount of aura regeneration that seemed to be quite high compared to other Hunters (he would've been run dry if not for that point), Jaune was exhausted.

 _Two seconds in._

The Ursa hadn't noticed him yet. They seemed to be playing with the dead corpses in their claws and was chewing them as if they were dining. He didn't vomit of the sight; he was too numb to even feel anything from that scene right now. His emotions took a backseat a while back when he saw too much one too many times.

His hands were shaking and numb due to gripping it too much and blocking too many attacks. His legs were barely able to keep him from standing as his knees ached and were fractured slightly making it painful to even move let alone dodge at high speeds. Not to mention his eyes were trying to close on him when he _couldn't_ right now.

He still needed to fight.

 _Three seconds in._

Jaune ignored the pain, ignored the tiredness and ignored the fear he was having facing against several Ursai and one Ursa _Major_. The time for nightmares was not now as he mentally sent the orders that would bring him victory against these four Grimm at the same time.

Without it he was certain he will die. Facing against _one_ Ursa exhausted all of his options and limits and just enabled him to barely defeat them one at a time. Facing more than one? Facing an Ursa _Major_? He would die if he faced them head on in any case.

Therefore he needed a plan and made one.

Like all plans he had today, they were crazy. And what was crazier than collapsing a building on top of Grimm with you underneath it with them? There was a high chance he would die and a small chance he would _live_.

And that small chance was all he needed.

 _Four seconds in._

Of course, that would mean he needed to _survive_ until that happened and he had to lure them to said building. He was definitely not going to do so with the already half collapsed guild building. The less said about the collateral damage to those hiding underneath the building in the vault the better.

"This is not going to go well for me at all" he muttered before picking up a rock and throwing it at one of the Grimm.

They noticed him then.

 _Five seconds in._

Jaune turned and immediately started to run as the Ursa started roaring and charging straight at him like…well a pack of bears. He didn't dare turn back to look at how close they were and instead focused on running as fast as possible to the target building he intended to collapse on all of them.

"Crap crap CRAP _CRAP!_ "

Of course that mean that one of the Ursa managed to hit his back, knocking him forward before he regained his balance while _still_ moving forward to continue running some more.

 _Six seconds in._

"Ow that hur-uuuh?" Jaune was mildly surprised but did not stop moving. Evasion a couple more attacks and blocking one, he was sent flying away from them far enough for him to get a running start on luring them again.

And in the process he patted himself, inspecting why he wasn't _dead_ from that hit, because it sure hurt but he wasn't _dead_. Shrugging, he believed that his semblance saved him again and didn't mind at all as he bolted to inside the building, crashing through the door.

 _Seven seconds in._

Three Ursai came crashing inside the house as well though the Ursa Major seemed to have stayed a bit behind. Mind racing, Jaune knew he didn't have the skills to take _three_ Ursai at once and stall enough on the off chance that Ursa Major would come into the house as well.

Therefore he sent a mental order to his two Aura Soldiers to start his plan.

He heard the sound of wood breaking from afar and knew he needed to stall for another five seconds. Five seconds was all he needed to do and possibly escape if he could.

 _Eight seconds in._

He raised his shield and blocked the _SLAM_ of a blow that took the air out of him and sent him flying back.

BANG!

 _Nine seconds in._

The world blacked out for a moment for Jaune before he realised his mistake. He didn't argument his body at all to prepare to defend himself. Without aura to his body to make him more durable, to make him stronger and to deflect the force of the blow away from him…

"F-Fuck…"

 _Ten seconds in._

He could _feel_ that a couple of his bones were broken and his aura was already moving in to try and fix it. And opening his eyes, he could _see_ the red eyes of death staring down at him as the monster of the abyss _drooled_ at him like a _meal_.

 _Eleven seconds in._

Groaning, he could hear more and more pillars supporting the two story house break down even more rapidly. His Aura Soldiers were doing quick work but he wasn't sure if he was able to survive this before or after they dropped the house on him.

 _Twelve seconds in._

A beat.

…Now that he thought about it, it was indeed an _insane_ plan.

 _Time_ seemed to slow as the three Ursai seemed content on surrounding him on all sides as his ruined body laid there helpless. One of them bashed his left arm, breaking it in the process while another broke one of his legs at the same time.

He screamed.

And the last Ursa?

He wanted to eat him… _head first_. While he was alive.

He continued screaming even _louder_ -

-And the world turned **white** once more as he felt something burst in his place, aura filling his body, the Ursa being sent back flying and most importantly to him and his plan, the building started falling down on all of them as a _vicious_ and _insane_ grin was plastered all over his face.

 _Thirteen seconds in._

The vision of Jaune Arc turned black just as he reinforced his body as best as he could before the he ingrained in his eyes the looks of _shock_ the Grimm had when everything fell down on them all.

…..

…..

"Wake….idiot….up….. _HELP!_ "

Everything seemed muted, he noted as his vision and consciousness came back. Was it strange that he was used to the feeling of waking up after involuntarily being knocked out? Considering who his partner was and what she considered training, not at all.

But he had other problems right now.

Mentally checking his body while moving _slightly_ in all ways like how Pyrrha taught him to, he whined at the staggering number of pains he was getting throughout his body. Yep, his left arm and leg were shot. Not to mention the broken ribs, and the _many_ fractures and cracks he had all over his skeleton that he was sustaining right now.

His Aura was fixing them with the _bullshit_ power of healing but it was slow going and it would take him _weeks_ to get himself back on his feet properly without specialised help of some kind. Else actively burn Aura to do so but doing that sometimes don't set bones properly. The sole thing he noticed immediately was how much Aura he had left. It was around a third.

Checking his A.U.R.A system, it was more precisely 32% full. And considering the 15% refund he got from the supposed destroyed Knight-1 and the amount he naturally regenerated after blacking out for an unknown period of time. He groaned at what could've happened when he wasn't awake-

-And seeing Lavender's grim face with an _unhealthy_ gash to one side of her face didn't help.

"What happened?" he asked as his vision cleared up and he felt his body (painfully) moved to allow him to stand up.

"Those two Huntsmen that were sent to take care of those Boarbatusks and Beowolves?" she stated, "Dead."

"How?" he demanded. While they weren't the strongest Hunters in town, they weren't the weakest as well and something on the level of E and D rank threats weren't enough to kill them even with a number advantage.

"They finished _those_ Grimm just fine" she said, knowing the look on his face to be of disbelief, "Unfortunately, there was… _another_ Grimm that was nearby and just arrived after routing the gate defences. Never got a chance considering they were ambushed."

Seeing his confused look she continued, "Those Grimm _we_ faced? Those are from when the first gate defence failed. All of those Hunters there died. The sole Grimm we're facing now? It managed to get force its way past the other gate killing quite a few Hunters in the way. Fortunately all the other Grimm ran away when he came."

His stomach dropped at those words and just as he was about to panic-

"Don't worry. Your partner is still alive, kicking and probably making a good show against the main enemy right now. Honestly she is sooo overpowered that it's not funny" she added quickly.

Sighing in relief and some guilt, he muttered, "Good."

Jaune idly wondered what kind of Grimm could force a defence force with Pyrrha collapse like that. Considering that the most of the Hunters in town were E rank, he wasn't surprised that some of them may die against any kind of threat that was over D rank like an Ursa Major on their own. Not to mention any of the guards without unlocked aura…

However this was something that apparently could force _Pyrrha_ back to this extent and even managed to kill every other Hunter out there besides his partner. Part of him just wanted to stay here, rest and hope for the best but as a Huntsman, as a _leader_ he had to go out there and help in any way possible.

"What are you doing?" Lavender's eyes widened, " _You_ need rest!"

"I _need_ to get out there and help my partner" he gritted out.

After staring at each other for a moment, the violet haired Huntress sighed before muttering, " _Men_."

"Right" she said, "I'm going up to see if I can get a good vantage point to snipe to distract for the rest of you. Make sure you don't die. Pyrrha would _murder_ me if letting you go caused you to die out there."

He barked out a laugh to that as the Huntress disappeared from his sight before grimacing at the state of his body.

"Right…not going to fight out there personally then" he stated, "Better get my Aura Soldier back. Good to know that they don't dismiss themselves when I'm unconscious at least…or is this something my semblance did as well?"

Limping his way out of the collapsed building, he noticed that there was conflict nearby and he widened his eyes at the sight of _this_ particular Grimm that was being fought by what seemed to be at least two teams of Hunters including Hazel, Lavender and Sandra as well as his partner it seemed.

Jaune gulped. Here were probably the only remaining Hunters in town and they were all being suppressed by a single Grimm and that was not the main problem. He looked at the enemy that seemed to be pushing back so many Hunter at once.

"Damn, what are they fighting?" he wondered, trying to see through the dust that the battle caught up.

It couldn't be weak judging by how Lavender expressed her concern to the battle. That meant nothing weak would be able to last this long. Not to mention, this Grimm managed scare off all the other Grimm. That was concerning.

A Giant Nevermore? Death Stalker? Those were some possibilities he considered.

"Better not be some 'legendary' Grimm. I do not need that on my plate today" he grumbled as he took a look.

The Grimm that was pretty dark in colour (like most Grimm with few exceptions) was pressing against _ten_ Hunters at the same time and among those ten was his partner. His partner that could handle C rank threats on her _own_ , and come out victorious in the end. Not to mention that all the other Hunters were probably D rank Hunters from how they moved.

 _It seemed that the reinforcement came at least…_ , he thought.

That would explain why some of those Hunters were moving at a level clearly higher than an E rank Hunter that made up most of this town's Hunter population. With the exception of Sky, there wasn't anyone else with that rank.

Looking around some more, half of the Hunters fighting were using ranged attacks more and among them were Lavender and Sandra it seemed. Hazel was among those who was taking a close combat approach to the battle but was clearly failing against this threat and Jaune couldn't blame him.

Then Jaune saw something from the side come up and knocked down a couple of Hunters with ease.

"A…white snake- _crap_."

What he saw, shocked him and made him _fear_ it or rather them the more he looked at it. Hell he would've preferred it to be a Death Stalker than this, at least that way the fight would be somewhat straightforward compared to this.

King Taijitu.

One white, one black working together in unholy harmony and kicking everyone's asses with such ease that he never expected in a creature like the Grimm. And not only that, they the way they were coloured much greyer than normal, they were at least King Taijitu _Major_ , meaning that they went from 'simple' C rank threats to B rank threats. It was no wonder why a group of Hunters with an average rank of D was struggling so much.

"Well _shit_."

* * *

 **A/N: Well, the first thing I have to say is that I am not satisfied with most of this chapter. One is that it is just shy above 10K words in content and second due to the _whole_ chapter being about combat and nothing more. As easy it may be to write a lot of content for battle scenes, more than often the quality is lacking. Meaning I need to revise, revise and reedit said content until it's above a certain standard. The quite literal first fight in this chapter? Had to rewrite it four times because the quality was too low to continue otherwise. **

**The part that I was content with from the very beginning was the POV of Pyrrha which while short, didn't have any problems with it. That and it was amusing to write up what she was thinking with the fighting against Grimm fighting being _casually_ mentioned in the background. This compared to the in dept thoughts that Jaune needs to do the same really shows how different the two are the most in my opinion. Pyrrha is a powerhouse in combat that doesn't need to think that much while Jaune is the the weaker planner that does things in a certain way to get an effect. Make no mistake but while Pyrrha merely leads while she fights, Jaune _leads_.  
**

 **Now...anything else I can talk about. Yeah. Side characters. While not a complete fan on focusing too much on them (no thanks to Bleach and Overlord (JP LN)), I believe that you should be able to flesh out side characters with at least a motive to what they are doing, at least before killing them off. _Those_ aren't are called Cannon fodder for a reason and I don't even both to give them a name unless it was in their POV and not anyone else's. Just as a note, if you have a character have a name, you better make them relevant to the plot in _some_ form or way else it's a waste of time to even consider naming them even for 'world building'. Take Hazel and Lavender. Probably 50-50 chance one or both of them will die next chapter. Not sure what I will do with them but there is connection with them and Jaune in terms for his progress in leading others, even if they only met for so little. Sandra, the girl whose partner died? Connection to the plot, fear of loss made relevant to Jaune. The nameless duo that got killed off somewhere near the end of the chapter? Fodder. **

**Anyway the next chapter should be the conclusion of the battle and the afterwards making it possibly longer than this one (maybe?) and that will be the end of the first arc. The second arc of this story will be...interesting with what I'm planning and I'm pretty sure people will complain to what I will write in it. People don't really like character death and with characters that they like.**

 **.**

 **.**

 **Well that was a bit ominous.**

 **See you all next time.**

 **P.S. Blame me getting back in Stardew Valley for my work, whether in quality, quantity or pacing. I barely write a page a day when I play that game...**

 **P.S.S. I'm just looking on my views and reviews numbers (28 reviews and 6.5K views btw) on this series to my Naruto fic (344 reviews and 150k views) and wow. That's a huge difference despite this being half as long as the other.**

 **On another note, I think I rewrote this AU twice now. Somehow got into the differences between Canon Jaune and this AU Jaune as well as the timeframe to which RWBY takes place and that was really not relevant at all (btw, Vol 1 is just before Beacon starts to a month in roughly. Vol 2 is around mid-way to the end of the first six months. Vol 3 is at the end of the year. Vol 4 takes place 6-8 months after Vol 3)**


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: I own nothing of RWBY which belongs to Rooster Teeth and the late Monty Owm.**

* * *

 **Chapter 7**

 **Grimm Tidings (Part 3)**

King Taijitu

Among the Grimm, this species was unique in that they were 'born' paired, one black and one white and due to this are counted as two as one does not stray far from the other. From his history lessons, there were many Hunters that died believing that they had killed one half of this paired Grimm while the other half sneaked up and ambushed them.

But more than that, the King Taijitu took on some characteristics of snakes as well. Unlike all other Grimm species, King Taijitu are born armoured even though those _scales_ are not as tough as true bone armour that other Grimm develop. However, at the same time when they do develop the bone armour the Grimm are known for, it is coloured grey instead of white making them unique as they don't 'grow' them but rather their scales change colour to indicate this change.

Besides this, there are rumours that King Taijitus can somehow evolve or combine with other Grimm to become a Hydra; a legendary Grimm that endlessly regenerate heads no matter how many slain. But more pressing was whether this Grimm was a Major or an Alpha rank one.

"I have no idea what's the difference between a King Taijitu Major and an Alpha King Taijitu" he grumbled. The former would be a B rank threat while the latter would be an A rank threat in which case, it would be better to just escape at that point.

However seeing that everyone wasn't dead yet, he bet that it was a Major and not an Alpha, although Jaune partly remembered reading about how stronger Grimm species taking longer to 'evolve', 'grow' or 'rank up'. That was one of the reasons why Boarbatusks had the largest numbers of Alphas and Ancient Rank Grimm among their ranks, because at best they would at best a C rank threat.

"But this is a King Taijitu…minimum C rank threat from birth…sort of" he muttered.

No one really knew how Grimm are born except that they… _form_ for a lack of a better word into existence from the murky shadow liquid that their bodies were made up. There are theories that stronger Grimm species take a while to fully form into what they are while other theories suggest that all Grimm start off as F rank threats and grow from there.

He really didn't care about the theories that much.

What he cared about was the life of his partner…and those three Hunters he at least fought with…and maybe the rest of the Hunters as well.

Jaune looked at the Hunter once more.

Ten Hunters.

Pyrrha, Hazel, Lavender and Sandra were all that he knew by name even if it was only that. While both the former two were generally close range fighters, the other two leaned towards long range fighting when they could with their choice of weaponry. However Lavender was the exception to this as she was quite formidable in close range as well though her sniper seemed to be more effective against larger enemies.

"Now what about the other Hunters…" he wondered

As for the other Hunters, from what he could see, four of them were Huntsmen while two of them were Huntresses. In order their choice of weaponry seemed to be blades attached to pistols, a lance, grenadier, a great-sword, rapier and dual swords that double as a bow. He didn't bother with much else of their description as he focused more on how they were positioned generally.

"Huh…that's strange" he frowned.

For some reasons, all the Huntresses with the clear exception of Pyrrha seemed to be of the supportive role while the Huntsmen seemed to be mostly frontline fighters. However, he could tell that in some shape or form, their weapons had guns on them and therefore, all of them had ranged options with those further away always firing in some way.

If he was to be honest, Jaune would've grouped all of the Hunters in pairs or groups of three and had them rotate with each other, attacking one at a time but continuously due to how stun-locking the Grimm might lead to an easier victory. It was a common tactic to continue attacking until the enemy dropped dead because it _worked_.

Weaker Grimm, not on the levels of Majors or Alphas were much harder to stun but most of the Grimm weren't of that level and were thus easier to kill rapidly due to a combination of poor defence, lack of experience and a general weakness to anything aura related and especially dust.

Of course, screwing up attacking any kind of Grimm no matter how 'weak' they are relative to the stronger ones often ends up with Hunters dead. While Hunters had an unusually tough body, allowing them to be thrown into and through walls without crippling them, there are limits. That said, everyone was fortunate that the Nevermores seemed to be gone and King Taijitus really have three ways of attacking.

Blunt, Bite and Strangle.

However the effectiveness and force of each attack is multiplied the sheer _speed_ in which they happen.

"Damn, where is that other _fucker?!_ "

"Shit! It disappeared again!"

"Focus on _this_ King Taijitu. We can kill the other one later!"

"Easy for you to say!"

And it was going pretty badly from what he could see.

The Hunters were uncoordinated for one and were making a lot of mistakes. Instead of grouping up in small teams to cover each other, they were shattered as individuals as each was moving on their own without regard to each other. When either of the King Taijitus knocked a Hunter down, no one covered them.

Rinse and repeat several times more and you would get this situation.

' _Better step in and help them now…though I don't know whether they will listen to me at all'_ thought Jaune with a wince his ribs flared with pain.

However, by the time he looked at the battle again, there was someone leading the battle and _everyone_ was listening to her. Jaune couldn't help but to smile at the sight despite the many times she said she wasn't used to leading.

" _Surround it on all sides_!" he heard Pyrrha shout out, "I'll lure it in towards me before everyone else attacks! Finish it off before the other one comes back!"

"Got it."

"No problems here."

"Thank god…"

With a chorus of agreement from the other Hunters who were all moving into position, Pyrrha flung her shield out and seemingly used her semblance to rebound the spinning shield off the face of the black half of the Grimm before catching it while drawing attention to herself with it.

" _Everyone in position NOW!"_ the lance user shouted.

The King Taijitu seemingly ignored Pyrrha for a moment to attack the other Hunters in their vulnerability. Looking shocked, the red-head quickly tried to redraw the attention of the Grimm by rapidly firing from her weapon's rifle mode as she shouted, " _Incoming Attack!_ "

The other Hunters scattered quickly at those words from their placements as the giant black snake Grimm tore through part of a building before redoubling back and slamming its head across the ground before barely missing the grenadier huntsman.

"Shit, that was close" said grenadier muttered before firing off a couple shots as the other Hunters took this cue to start firing as well.

Seeing this, Jaune could only shake his head. The plan was to use Pyrrha as bait to distract the Grimm as much as possible so everyone could deal maximum damage to it. However from just this, the King Taijitu would be able to literally dodge many of the attacks towards it and at best suffer from minor wounds.

And it really showed in the next couple of seconds.

The Grimm wasn't stupid. It constantly moved from place to place on the battlefield, never stopping and always on the offence to disrupt the Hunters as much as possible. Jaune suspected that this battle would've been long finished if the Grimm didn't have the intelligence to press every advantage it could.

Not to mention it was taking advantage of the still dark skies in the mornings to better hide for another ambush or two. In all, Jaune was impressed. If the side that was using smart moves wasn't an abomination of a creature that seemed intent in destroying humanity and everything he loved that is.

"Damn that went _well_ " a sarcastic voice muttered loud enough for everyone to hear.

A groan was followed up by the grenadier, " _Shut up_ Umber. That went horribly."

As another person was about to speak, possibly to comment on how badly the plan went through but was deafened by a scream and then a _splat._ Jaune and the other Hunters could only look in horror of the remains of one of their comrades and the remains of a broken rapier that failed to protect her.

More than that, they looked up at where the Huntress was stationed before her demise and found a bloodied giant black snake and a massive hole where a roof used to be.

 _Nine Hunters left_.

Well technically _ten_ still if you considered him as part of that group but once more, he reminded himself, he was in no shape to actually physically fight with the others besides being a liability else bait. Of course he still had his Aura Soldier, Spearman-1 in play…

With the battle continuing with a roar of anger, grief and frustration laced in the actions of everyone, Jaune paused and took time to look at his partner specifically. He had never considered much about her strengths compared to other Hunters specially aside from knowing that she was strong. He was starting to see what her champion title truly meant.

She was the four time tournament winner of Mistral meaning she was strong. That was clear enough. However from what he could see, she was certainly _extremely_ strong against other humanoid opponents like Hunters. But that didn't completely transfer to against the Grimm it seemed. While strong in general, she wasn't _overwhelmingly_ strong as you would expect from all the rumours against Grimm specifically.

And he knew why. Despite everything, Pyrrha was still just a young C rank Huntress according to A.U.R.A and it showed. No matter how talented she was in battle, it showed that all of her training was geared towards fighting in one on one combats. Although her moniker of _Invincible Girl_ made more sense when you think of a C rank Huntress constantly beating B and even A rank Hunters in such combat.

But it was more likely that Pyrrha was constantly beating other people her age than those older and much more experienced than her.

Jaune suspected that it was mainly due to her semblance that allowed her to be so powerful against other Hunters. Magnetic Polarity would definitely allow her to have the edge against other Hunters, especially the more metal they had on them. He could easily see her altering the path of her opponent, manipulating them in small ways while controlling the metal on her own body to make herself seem stronger and faster than usual.

Thinking more about it, _that_ was probably the reason why she won so many tournaments. And her actual body strength and skills helped her a lot to that cause as well. If his estimates was right, she would be able to match B rank Hunters or even higher that way.

However, her semblance had no direct control over the Grimm in any way or form meaning that aside from possible boosting her own body speed to her reaction speed, she had little to no advantages against them.

" _MARTHA!_ " someone screamed and the battle went back in full force.

The Hunters were shooting at the Grimm that seemed to move also casually and at the same time taunted them by _living_ and even brushing off attacks without much effort.

"Damnit! This isn't working!" the lance user shouted

"Then what the hell should we do? Give up?" another person, the great-sword user that was not Hazel growled out in tears. It appeared that he was the same person who shouted in despair to the death of his partner.

As the two Hunters stopped fighting the Grimm and instead each other, Jaune realised that things will become worse. At the same time this was happening, he could see that there were countless minor wounds on the King Taijiti that was recovering rapidly.

Seeing this, he knew that the group was fractured. Not many could cooperate with others well in stressful situations with strangers. Minor complaints that would've been ignored in normal circumstances would grate and spin into shouting matches in the worst possible time.

The King Taijitu knew and at the moment, it _moved_ faster than one could blink and snapped up its mouth and shallowed the two Hunters that were too distracted to notice that they had much worse things to worry about.

It is in this way, the two arguing Hunters both _died_.

Grimacing with a pale face of what just happened, he could only helplessly watch as things went back to action once more. Moral was down, they were struggling against _one_ King Taijitu let alone two and they didn't even know where the second, White King Taijitu was as well.

However, that didn't deter his partner at all as she switched her weapon from Xiphos and Javelin modes rapidly for that extra oomph with each attack along a surprising bout of spearmanship that was beyond him at the enemy.

As the King Taijitu went to attack Pyrrha through a head-butt, he saw Hazel to the side as well as another Huntsman with a similarly giant sword both rush up and slammed their weapons to the side of the head of the Grimm causing it to be knocked off course. However things didn't go completely to plan as he saw a white blur come from the side and knock down Hazel and the other Huntsman with ease before slamming itself to another Hunter.

"Crap!"

"Focus Fire!" someone shouted before the barrage of bullets started being fired at the White King Taijitu.

It was ineffective.

Spinning around each other, the pair of King Taijitu moved rapidly and gave off the illusion that there was a helix of white and black twisting into each other before two flashes of red eyes and black and white burst out.

 **BANG!**

 _Everyone_ was knocked back by that but fortunately no one actually die from that flashy attack. But at the same time, it did managed to stagger everyone in that moment and caused more chaos on the battlefield. At this rate, everyone was going to die and he could do nothing to stop it. Despite how strong his partner was, he wasn't sure that she could survive this on her own.

A single _minute_.

In that amount of time, two Grimm managed to bring down ten Hunters to seven and that was mainly done by _one_ of them as the other was hiding for the most part doing something he didn't know. But at the same time, Jaune had a minute to look, observe and analyse which led to him planning.

The plan to victory would be reckless, mostly insane and would have a low chance of success but it would probably allow everyone (especially Pyrrha) a better chance of living then what they were doing right now. He pushed his body off leaning on the wall and took the stick-cane that Spearman-1 fetched for him.

"Let's see what kind of plan I have first before telling them."

The plan itself was simple. With the remains of Hunters, they would be split into two groups where each one would face one of the King Taijitu at a time. Normally this would be a bad thing because you would be splitting up your forces that could barely manage one to become even weaker. However, the goals of the two groups were not the same.

One would go off and kill the Grimm while the other would stall the other Grimm as best as they could.

This meant that the strengths of the two groups would be uneven. There needed to be as much condensed force in one group to ensure that they would be able to kill the King Taijitu in the first place and enough left over for the other group for them to last long enough for the other group to finish up and move to the next target.

As a counter-plan, the opposite could happen as well. Pyrrha along with a minimal amount of other Hunters aiding her, could stall and endure as long as possible for the other Hunters to kill the King Taijitu before moving onto the one that they were stalling. This however, gave the opposite effect on survival rates for Pyrrha and everyone else as they are inverted.

It might work but he didn't have anything strong enough to back his partner up right now. He simply wasn't strong enough to make it work on his own which was why he preferred the former plan to the latter.

Even as he knew that the kind of plan he thought up would cause deaths.

 _But Pyrrha would survive,_ his traitorous mind spoke.

Jaune Arc realised something during these last hour and half. The life of one Pyrrha Nikos…weighed more than the lives of the other Hunters to him. His plan was bias to the point that it would allow his partner to the one who had the best survival chance he could give her while sacrificing the chances of everyone else in the process.

The fact that this plan had the best chance of success was a 'sad' fact to him.

"Still, I have to make sure that everyone has a better chance of surviving with this plan than not."

No one would accept a plan that ultimately led them to a worse situation than before. In this case, no one wanted to be used and discarded while the mastermind made sure his own safety was before theirs. Jaune _needed_ something to contribute to the battle else the Hunters that he didn't know and wouldn't trust him would at least listen to him.

"Perhaps…" he muttered, looking at his Aura Soldier.

The Aura Soldier skill was powerful, without a doubt and he knew its limits…but could it do _more_ for him right now?

Jaune had quickly concluded that another D rank unit in the mist of things wouldn't affect things too much. But what if he added another C rank unit into the battlefield to even things up a bit? He had a third of his Aura inside his body right now and one particular skill synched well with the Aura Soldier skill.

If he could use Aura Charge to bypass the usual limits of Aura Soldier…

Glancing at Spearman-1 again, he thought, _perhaps_ and decided to take the chance.

"Aura Charge" he commanded, targeting the Aura Soldier with his skill.

In the next few moments, Jaune could feel his Aura drain out of his body and into Spearman-1 as he felt the Aura Soldier skill change once more. He could _see_ the Aura augmenting his creation to be even stronger than before.

' _Success'_ he grinned as his A.U.R.A system replied to the changes.

 **[Skill: Aura Charge (Novice) has been upgraded to Aura Charge (Adept)]**

 **Skills: [-]**

 **Aura Charge (Proficiency: Adept): Capable of using Aura to externally boost the natural physical abilities of an imbued object.**

· **Adept Proficiency allows for moderate application of increased power and durability in affected object. Bypasses minor restrictions in other aura related skills upon use via overcharge.**

· **Adept Proficiency allows for moderate sync in increasing ability with object instinctively for battle purposes.**

· **Adept Proficiency allows a set amount of aura costs in using this skill.**

Quickly scanning through the changes, aside from more effectiveness that seemed to have come with more proficiency, there was one change that he was more interested in. The fact that the Aura Charge skill could now bypass restrictions of other aura related skills. This was most likely the reason why he was capable of 'upgrading' his Aura Soldier from 50% of his Aura to…75% in total leaving him with a mere 4-5% of his Aura reserves back in his body.

"75% of my Aura in a single Aura Soldier" Jaune mumbled while trying to calculate how strong it is compared to before.

But he never got the time as the battle was back on full swing without him.

Scrapping whatever plans he had half-formed away from his head, a new plan appeared. Things were getting too out of hand and if he couldn't plan something that could get everyone out alive then it wasn't worth it.

Right now the Hunters he saw needed…confidences, assurance and someone to command them.

Without hesitation, Jaune Arc moved onto the battlefield, protected by his strongest Aura Soldiers and shouted–

-o-

Pyrrha Nikos was _not_ having a good time as she and the many other Hunters that managed to survive the first onslaught that were _two_ B rank King Taijitus, attempted to fight back as much as possible.

Key word: _Attempt_.

Down to a mere 7 Hunters that were battle-ready, she was more than prepared to stake her life on the line here despite not being on optimal condition. The sad fact was that despite her semblance and skills being more geared towards combat against other Hunters, she was the strongest among the Hunters here.

At best, she could consider everyone else's combat abilities to be around the low to high D rank which wasn't enough to deal with a B rank threat. Not to mention that two fellow Hunters managed to _die_ because they were arguing in the midst of a life and death battle. Such a death was unacceptable when they needed all the numbers they had.

"SPLIT INTO TWO GROUPS. ONE IF YOU ARE CONFIDENT YOU CAN KILL THOSE GRIMM AND THE OTHER IF YOU CAN STALL THE OTHER GRIMM. GET OUT OF HERE IF YOU CAN'T DO EITHER!"

The voice was loud but was with authority and she instinctively reacted and obeyed it. She could _feel_ the other Hunters falling in line to the words almost immediately as well. But where had she heard this voice-

 _Jaune?_

The feeling of discontent she had with the current situation was _nothing_ compared to the level of _fear_ she was having when she heard and a split second saw an injured Jaune step onto the battlefield with a brightly glowing Aura Solder next to him.

"RIGHT! TEAM BLACK WILL GO OFF AND KILL THAT INJURED GRIMM THAT IS _STILL_ RECOVERING FROM YOUR ATTACKS. TEAM WHITE WILL STALL THE UNINJURED ONE!"

Without thinking, her body moved towards the Black King Taijitu and she had noticed that she was backed up by two other Hunters (one was a Huntsman with a great-sword, the other was a Huntress with a large sniper rifle) and strangely enough, Jaune's Aura Soldier as well.

Pyrrha looked back and saw that the faces of her fellow Hunters changed for the better. There was something… _alive_ in their eyes now. _Hope_ , she realised. That was something they didn't have until now.

"TEAM WHITE! STALL! STALL WITH YOUR LIFE AND MAKE SURE IT DOESN'T INTERFERE WITH TEAM BLACK! SHOOT IT! CUT IT! TRAP IT WITHOUT STOPPING THE PRESSURE! DON'T LET IT NEAR YOU! ALWAYS BE PREPARED TO DODGE AND RUN AWAY WHEN IT ATTACKS! DISTRACT IT IF A COMRADE IS CAUGHT! WE WILL COME TO YOU WHEN WE'RE DONE HERE! GO! GO! GO!"

To the side, she could see a team of four Hunters armed with a Grenade Launcher, a Bow, Twin Blade-Pistols and a Rifle each start firing off their weapons at the White King Taijitu before luring it off by strangely enough, running away as suggested by Jaune.

She had no idea if that plan would work but the strangest thing about Jaune's plans was that they usually worked in a good way most of the time. She held the belief that as long as they worked together, they would last long enough for them to come aid them as well.

"Right" Jaune said in a much quieter and more familiar tone, "The four of us against this big bad Grimm then."

Her partner took a glance to the pair of Hunters that took on the role of slaying this Grimm with them and muttered out, "Huh. I didn't think a pair of E rankers like me had enough power to kill a B rank threat."

The Huntsman rolled his eyes, "Of course not. We're here more for you."

"Yeah! Both of us have err… _heavy-duty_ weapons on hand and we thought you two might need more help than just yourselves" the Huntress chipped happily.

Pyrrha sent a _look_ to Jaune to explain.

"This is Hazel and Lavender. We met during the first…half hour of the invasion. Pretty decent, at least a lot better than the so called 'D Rankers' that left the other way just now" he said, "Wonder why you two are still E rankers like me though…"

"The town puts more 'pressure' for those who achieve D rank to make a name of themselves and refer the place so they get more Lien from the Guild I think. There's a reward based system in place so _everyone_ is trying to pump out stronger Hunters from their towns. A good way to make more Hunters I suppose" Hazel shrugged before noticing something about Jaune and scowled.

"You're injured" he stated.

Jaune rolled his eyes in response, "What made you notice? Me moving stiffly or the fact I need a cane to stand up right now."

"If that's the case, you really should stand this out" Pyrrha advised before sighing knowing what his response would be, "Though I suspect you would just say something along the lines of 'can't let you do this on your own' or a variant of that."

"Naturally. Can't lead you if I'm not actually here" he replied.

Hazel took a moment before unequipping something from his side and throwing it at Jaune who Jaune caught it easily and asked holding it up, "A pistol?"

"He has a set" Lavender explained and yet not explaining at the same time.

The brown haired Huntsman explained, "Waste of ammo if I keep on using my sword on weak Grimm. I doubt the bullets in that pistol can even harm that Grimm but it can at least be a distraction for a bit. Can't exactly expect you on shield duty in the state you're in."

"Yeah" Jaune grimaced as she noticed that he was lacking his shield and sword right now, "Both broke when the house collapsed on me."

"You mean when _you_ collapsed the house on you" Lavender snorted.

" _WHAT?!_ " Pyrrha hissed hearing those words and connecting the dots in her mind, "What the hell were you thinking?!"

"Uhhh…no time for that, we have a Grimm to kill" he evaded while glancing at the Black King Taijitu that was stationary this entire time.

The quadrate of Hunters all turned and looked at said Grimm before Lavender asked, "Why isn't the King Taijitu attacking us yet? Heck, why didn't it attack while we were distracted."

"Because it knows the longer it stalls, the more it heals and the better its advantage will be. It's intelligent and pretty old to boot" Hazel answered before swinging his sword once before clicking noises could be heard from it.

Holding her weapon and shield up as well, Pyrrha was prepared for the fight to start as well when she noticed something that amiss but she wasn't sure _what_ exactly it was that she was forgetting.

The next moment, a _flicker_ of white smashed into the back of the head of the King Taijitu much to her surprise.

"ATTACK!" Jaune screamed alerting them before she started to move as well. All they had to do was kill this Grimm and with her partner by her side, she had a lot more confident that this will work out as long as he managed the battle for her.

She always preferred letting someone command her rather than be the one in command.

She was the first to attack of the three when Jaune's Aura Soldier sent a second attack to the Grimm that tried to shake away its head. Enhancing her legs with her aura easily, she leaped and in a single move, threw her weapon that was in javelin mode at the enemy-

 _Twist the trajectory of the projectile using her semblance-_

-And managed to hit the King Taijitu in the eye causing it to roar in pain while shaking even more.

"Siiiiis **saaaAAAAAAAAAAA** "

Using her semblance once more to _pull_ her weapon back to her, she ignored the second sharp pain the Grimm seemed to be in and instead threw her shield at it. Just as she reobtained her weapon, she noticed an attack towards her and dodged a head-butt from the giant snake that ignored her shield before using her semblance a second time to draw her shield back to her and catching it.

Looking again, she could see the Huntsman named Hazel rapidly use his giant sword with a surprisingly amount of speed and force before too jumping away just as the Huntress, Lavender started firing inside of the Grimm's mouth. The King Taijitu retaliated by trying to smash its tail into her.

The battle continued.

….

….

 _Switch to rifle mode. Target damaged eye. Fire. Fire. Fire. Dodge attack._

"Pyrrha! Keep firing at that area. Make it mad!"

 _Fire. Fire. Fire. Ammo finished. Reload flammable ammo. Fire. Fire. Fire._

"Got it-WATCH OUT!"

 _Use semblance on Jaune's armour. Drag partner away from attack. Continue firing-_

"-Shit. Pyrrha distract it. Hazel, attack the head. Don't bother with the rest of the body. You too Lavender."

 _Throw Shield. Hit target. Use semblance to control. Leap to side. Switch to Xiphos mode. Catch shield._

"This isn't working…Pyrrha! Target the other eye!"

 _Spin. Switch to Javelin mode. Throw. Guide using semblance. Target other eye complete._

"Crap now it's getting into a rage. Wait, how can it still sense us? Nevermind-"

 _Jump to dodge. Use semblance to retract weapon. Run forward. Slash. Slash. Slash. Slash. Jump._

 _Flip in mid-air. Throw Shield. Use semblance to catch shield. Switch to Rifle Mode. Fire. Fire. Fire._

"Shit Shit _SHIT_! Where is the _weakness_?! We don't have the power to pierce through scaled armour in time!"

 _Switch to Xiphos mode. Run up to King Taijitu. Stab. Slash. Slash. Dodge right. Roll forward._

 _Switch to Javelin mode. Throw. Block. Use semblance recall weapon. Continue dodging._

"Inside. YES! The inside is its weak spot! Focus fire whenever it opens its mouth! Better yet SOMEONE JUMP INTO ITS MOUTH AND KILL IT FROM INSIDE OUT!"

"YOU'RE COMPLETELY CRAZY JAUNE-WAIT WHERE ARE HELL ARE YOU GOING PYRRHA?!"

 _Throw shield. Jump into mouth. Try not to notice the smell…._

"TARGET THE UPPER HALF OF THE MOUTH! THE BRAIN IS THERE!"

 _Hold weapon two-handedly. Stab. Stab. Slash. Stab. Slash. Slash. Slash. Stab._

 _Kill Confirmed._

-o-

 **[Total Slain Grimm: 66]**

"YEAH!"

Jaune shouted in sheer _joy_ seeing that message and how the Black King Taijitu toppled down to the ground lifeless as its body started discomposing quickly. His partner, Pyrrha was seen rapidly escaping from its mouth before the black liquid could stand her armour and hair…too much.

Now all they had to do was back up the other team and kill the White King Taijitu.

And seeing how they had figured out a good enough plan to kill said Grimm and how they would have an even better chance with a better numerical number to how many allies they have, the next battle would be much easier despite this one exhausting them to a certain extent.

Turning around, he asked himself, "Right. Where are the other Hunters?"

In a way, while he _might_ have made plans to sacrifice them for the sake of Pyrrha in his head, he hadn't actually committed them to the plan that might or might not cause their deaths. Though there were some parts that made it through like the _need_ to separate both King Taijitus away from each other.

It was a bit of a bitter pill to shallow that the same plan that he had made up to desperation, balancing his partner's life over others was also essentially the same as the plan to make sure as many Hunters made it out alive.

Straining his hearing a bit, trying to _listen_ to any kind of conflict he muttered in annoyance, he clicked his tongue, "You would _think_ a battle with Hunters and Grimm would be loud…"

After checking over how Pyrrha was doing, Jaune asked Hazel, "Hey, do you know where the others may be? I'm pretty sure that they're struggling to take down their King Taijitu as we speak."

"Not sure" the Huntsman frowned, "How… _long_ have we been fighting exactly? Things started blurring quickly."

"Then we should fine them quickly then" Pyrrha stated before cleaning off some gore off her shield, "While we're not in optimal conditions, the other team is bound to have more trouble than us even if they are just stalling for us to show."

"True true" nodded Jaune tapping his cane all the while, "That and it's kind of _my_ responsibility to get them through this alive. My plan and all…"

"Well? What are we waiting for?" asked Lavender, leaning on her sniper rifle a bit.

The blonde bit his lip, "We don't know where they are. Communications are down so we can't contact them as well and-"

 **BOOOM!**

"What was that?" Lavender cautiously asked.

 **BOOOM!**

Hazel flexed his weapon a bit before asking, "Is it me or is it getting closer?"

At the same time, Jaune cautiously ordered Spearman-1 closer to him just as Pyrrha took a more defensive position and Lavender switched her sniper rifles into its axes form. Hazel was not far behind as he took a few steps back from where the sounds originated from.

 **BOOOM!**

With the final _close_ explosion, the team of four saw the _building_ explode and a very large _white_ figure and a much smaller _black_ figure fall into frame. The black figure shot away in front of them, bouncing trice before stopping for them to see.

It was a charcoaled body-at least most of it was.

" _Oh God_ " Pyrrha whispered in horror before seeing the weapon the body had on hand. A grenade launcher. One that they had seen quite recently on the hands of one of their fellow Hunters that was part of the White Team.

…That was stalling the White King Taijitu.

" _What the hell happened_?" Jaune questioned in a harsh whisper. He was very much aware that said White King Taijitu was very nearby right now and he couldn't- _wouldn't_ break down right now.

"They died" Hazel said hollowly without much bite. But it still caused him to flinch.

 _He sent them to die_.

" _Fuck_."

"And that Grimm is still alive and mostly unharmed from the experience. Almost like it was playing with them and found out blacky here died" the violet Huntress muttered darkly.

Pyrrha shifted in place, prepared for battle already before saying, "We need to kill it now. If it escapes…"

Jaune didn't need to know what would happen if it escaped. It was plainly simple if they thought about it. The White King Taijitu was a B rank threat and was of a high enough threat level that much more experienced Hunters would be sent to kill it. However at the same time, it is very possible for this Grimm to move around fast enough to destroy another two-three towns on its own.

The Strongest Hunters live in Vale.

And from there, webs of Hunters are stationed but there was one trend that stayed true the further you go from Vale. The towns furthest away from Vale are often left with the weakest of Hunters on patrol. It was nothing malicious about this arrangement at all. The best gear, supply and training were all in the capital of the Kingdom. Hunters _naturally_ diverge to that location on default.

Furthermore, it takes more resources to save a town on the outskirts of Vale than near the centre of it. Bullheads while a common air transportation method required fuel and therefore a certain amount of dust to fly, meaning money and more importantly, _time_. Even with emergencies being reported as quickly as it is, sometimes there isn't just enough time to save everyone.

That and it didn't help that the town's personal CCT tower seemed to have been taken down before or during this invasion…

Therefore the _only_ thing that they could do to spare as many people as possible is to kill this White King Taijitu.

"You're right. But we wasted most of our ammo and stamina on the Black King Taijitu already" said Jaune, "And I bet it won't let us rest any more than this. We might make it out alive if we fight it right now…"

It was more luck and chance that they managed to take on and defeat a B rank threat like the Black King Taijitu than anything else. There were so many things that could've and almost went wrong during the fight. Jaune knew that he almost lost his partner many times during the fight and he wasn't happy that he needed to take the risk once more.

That and not only were they exhausted; their morale was down thanks to the other team dying, leaving them with this enemy to fight. He really didn't know what to do to get through this…

"Then you don't need to fight kid."

Jaune's eyes widened as he saw a group of Hunters approach. There were four of them. Three Huntsmen and one Huntress and all of them looked quite serious and yet the one who spoke had a joking smirk on his face. That Huntsman was dressed in a white and blue combo of shirt and pants and had his hair spiked up blue.

Taking a look at the White King Taijitu said Huntsman whistled, "A King Taijitu? Those are quite rare and a B rank one to boot!"

Said Huntsman pulled his great-sword from his back, casually swinging it around once.

"Surprising that this level of Hunters could even defeat one of them…judging by the remains of one over there" said another Huntsman. This one was dressed a lot more finely than the first and that reflected in his choice of weaponry being a long thin sword.

"Enough talk" the sole Huntress in bright red barked out shifting her weapon from a staff to a massive pole, "We can all rub each other off _after_ we kill this time. Ying! Go protect the brats!"

"No problems" said Ying. Jaune noticed that unlike his comrades, he was distinctively…Asian for a lack of a better word. And that reflected in his choice of clothing being a dark green and a split between what Jaune believed to be a dress and something that wasn't.

The next moment, the three Hunters faced against the White King Taijitu with confidence that Jaune never managed to believe that he could have. Even when he could _barely_ see them move, he could tell that they were _dancing_ around the Grimm with ease.

"What's…going on?" wondered Lavender.

Hazel could only rub his eyes a bit in disbelief before muttering, "Reinforcements…"

His partner could only nod to that adding, "Strong ones as well."

"I'm not sure if they're B or A rank Hunters…" Jaune admitted. Though he didn't expect his question to be answered.

"We are classified as B rank Hunters but among the stronger ones. Nice to meet you all. I am Ying and I am here to protect you all" Ying said while casually standing nearby, watching the rest of the Hunters battle.

He could only gulp at how… _casual_ this all seemed to Ying and the rest of his team. The cocky looking Huntsman was easily slamming his sword to the side of the King Taijitu's head and was affecting it with each hit. The refined looking Huntsman was slicing up the head of said Grimm as well.

But most impressively was the Huntress that somehow managed to take a large clumsy weapon and with _grace_ slam it through the mouth of the King Taijitu before firing off whatever explosives was in it that extended from the length of the giant pole before instantly killing the King Taijitu like that.

 **[Mission ID: 00250098 (Protection of Town/Subjugation of Grimm) has been completed]**

 **[Mission ID: 00250347 (Search and Rescue) has been commissioned]**

 **[Please stay in Section G-67 Town-34 for review and allocation of rewards]**

The battle didn't even take a minute.

No it was closer to a curb stomp that ended after a few seconds.

 _This is the difference between a B rank team and E rank one?_ , Jaune thought in both awe and bitterness.

Technically while Hazel and Lavender were D rank in ability and so was he if he used his Aura Soldier skill, not to mention Pyrrha who was a C rank Huntress, they still classified an E rank group. Still, it made their actual ability in battle to be D rank. Still, two ranks. Seeing this now, Jaune could see the difference between two ranks.

Considering that he had considered Pyrrha _powerful_ , these Hunters were _monsters_ in comparison.

"Looks like they finished up deal with it" Ying assured, "You guys are safe now"

But that comment did not help reassure him at all despite it doing so for the others. Seeing the corpse of the King Taijitu dissolve quickly into black liquid, Jaune could only feel distress that he wasn't making any kind of progress at all.

 _That he was still too weak_.

-o-

"The last battle was…" Jaune trailed off before dismissing Spearman-1 and recovering the Aura to help speed up his healing.

"Yeah" Pyrrha nodded with a gazed look at what was left of the battlefield.

"Do you think we will ever-"

"Perhaps with enough time and training we may. We have a lot of time after this to decide what we want to do and a lot of training for both of us if we want to reach that level."

"Hmm…so more training in general" he sighed though considered it for a moment, "Yeah, I can see why we need more training. I still yet to develop my body enough for those two passive skills I wanted to learn and it would've been handy to have him today."

"True and I need more options to quickly mow down Grimm on mass. My weapons simply aren't designed for large group combat unless I extend my use of my semblance to the extreme and that just exhausts me even faster" she moaned.

"Have you considered carrying more metal around for you to control?" he asked.

His partner gave him a stink eye for that question, "Do you want me to lug around a massive amount of metal? It wouldn't be that efficient if I need to rest every so often to recover my aura reserves whenever we want to travel long distances."

"What about Iron Sand then? Doesn't that count as a metal?"

"…Maybe though I need large quantities for it to be effective" she admitted, "And I'm limited to sawing attacks in order for it to be effective…using such a thing against other humans…"

"Then just use it against Grimm" he rolled his eyes, "You don't need to use all your choice of weapons against other people you know. As Hunters, our primary enemies will always be Grimm."

"If that's the case than I need to save up a lot of lien for a space-expand bag and a powerful one to boot. Those costs millions of lien on minimum for good reason and even large companies use them to store away and transfer the most valuable of good."

"I can always give you any lien I get" he shrugged, "That way; we're getting something more useful from the money."

"You need that money for better equipment" she glared, "Your current equipment may be fine for now but sooner or later you'll be critically injured or dead because you didn't bother to gain better protection for yourself."

"But how much will it cost to constantly upgrade my gear?"

"…Quite a lot but weapons tend to cost more than actual armour. Shape-shifting technology is the prime cost associated with Hunter equipment after all unless you intent on having shape-shifting armour?" she gave a pointed look that even thinking of such a thing was foolish.

Jaune let out a long sigh in the end.

Hopefully whatever compensation they got from completing this mission would be enough to pay for a lot of stuff that he was lacking. Flashbangs and Smokebombs were nice and all for escaping but sooner or later he would need to actually take a hit…and he rather do so with quality armour and not what he currently has.

-o-

To Hazel Hazumon, the person named Jaune Arc was a contradiction.

Born from a well-known Hunter oriented family, he did not specialise in his family's famed swordsmanship nor the direct energy based aura techniques that were known to rip battlefields apart. Nor was he especially powerful unlike many in his family despite having the equally large amount of Aura that seemed genetic in the family.

In many ways, he is more frustrating to figure out than his childhood friend and first and current partner, Lavender and that was saying something. At _she_ made some sense in the mist of her madness known as 'window shopping' and 'dressing up'. Jaune's partner, Pyrrha was even easier to figure out not that he knew her personally enough to tell that his impression of her was right or not.

But back to Jaune.

Hazel admits to being both impressed and unimpressed at the teenager at times. The former mostly because he somehow managed to snag Pyrrha Nikos into his team and for his mind that seemed at least decently developed on tactics that only helps push a battle into their favour. The latter more due to how long it took Jaune to get his act together.

Disappointment was the _least_ of the words he had for him when he turned up as a useless and yet talented Huntsman in town. On one hand, Jaune Arc managed to learn a _powerful_ skill that was called 'Aura Soldier' and yet on the other hand _still_ managed to end up useless to the majority of people. There was such a thing called self-management and it was not called Jaune.

And with time, that light that pushed him forward started to dim and so did he. Of course, then he finally got his act together with some help, not that many would help him by then. Still, over the three months that Pyrrha ended up in Jaune's life and things seemed to have turned around for the blonde. Despite what some may say, he could tell that there was a lot of improvement in Jaune.

Whether it is in combat ability, knowledge or that _drive_ that seemed to consume him, Hazel in a way _feared_ Jaune. The potential was there, that was a certain but many person had potential and never lived to it. No, what separated the strong from the _monsters_ was a drive to do _anything_ and _everything_ to get stronger no matter the cost.

There was that look in Jaune's eyes when those senior Hunters managed to easily slay the King Taijitu.

 _Determination_.

 _Self-loathing_.

 _Grief._

A combination of those three things in a person was not a good thing. Due to this, Hazel would rather just leave things be with the blonde and head their separate ways in order to survive what is to come with him.

However Lavender always seemed to have other ideas…

-o-

Lavender Lotus was interested in Jaune Arc.

No, not in _that_ way but rather the way that a cat is curious about things. Not that she would _die_ because she was simply curious about stuff. She was too strong for that. To put it simply, Jaune is like the _protagonist_ of a story. You have a 'weak' and 'uncool' person from a strong and famous family and suddenly he's getting all strong with the help of an unlikely beautiful love interest.

It's sooo like those romance stories she read about all the time!

Of course, Jaune is surprisingly good at all the stuff that Hazel is bad at. He knows what colours just _don't_ work together and even knows that cleaning yourself daily is _important_. Sometimes Lavender doesn't know why she keeps Hazel around.

…Right he is the childhood _eye-candy_ friend.

Seriously have you seen those _abs_? You could cut a Grimm on there and it would _still_ remain as perky as Hazel tries to make it. She _knows_ that he stealthily does sit-ups in the middle of the night to make sure they look _great_! Not that she didn't prompt him in doing so by showing off _her_ awesome abs! He stared at her strangely that day and doubled up on his training on his own.

She was so proud of him!

Although Jaune seems to be shaping up quite nicely from his scrawny self that was all thin and no _buff_. Lavender had to admit but Pyrrha knew what she was doing, particularly making sure that _ass_ was good to look at in such a short time. She really needed to _work_ to make sure Hazel get the same results over a year.

Of course-where was she?

Jaune was interesting in a weird- _weird_ way you know. It's interesting to see how far he can go up, and see him _crash_ when his dreams are destroyed you know. It happened to Hazel it was the most _b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l_ thing she had ever seen. Her man had never been so tolerant of her after that.

Hopefully Pyrrha could see that letting Jaune in command isn't the right idea. After all, behind every great man was an even greater woman!

Of course things will _never_ be right when Lavender Lotus has to bury her _friends_. But this is how the _story_ h-has to go after all. The _protagonist_ needs someone to _sympathise_ with at the end of the _prologue_.

-o-

When they started extracting the corpses of those who were killed by the Grimm near the gates where the battle was most extreme, Jaune felt a combination of disgust, guilt and horror at once. By the time they reached where most of the civilians were trying to hide, the so called 'safe zone', all he was feeling was numb.

Of course, that was after he vomited the remains of nothing from inside his stomach to the sight and _smell_. _Especially_ the smell that was apparent even standing outside of the still sturdy and unbreached vault door.

"It's like nothing happened and they're all safe on the other side…" Jaune commented as the Huntsmen Jacob and Dusk pried open the vault door via their weapons cutting through the edges of the vault door slowly.

"Almost like they're alive…" shaking his head he let out a gloomy sigh as he didn't even have the anger to clench his fist anymore, "But the _smell_ …"

"Jaune…though unlikely, _some_ may still be alive in there" Pyrrha placed her hand on his shoulder. He noticed that she was shaking a bit as well but tried not to show it on her face.

Lavender on the other hand _did_ break down before long when she found the bodies of long time childhood friends among the dead and Hazel was with her to keep her comforted and at the same time guard her in case some of the more adventurous Grimm came around seeking the source of despair.

"Still" he grimaced, "This is _not_ going to be good for us to do this."

She nodded, "But it's our responsibility nonetheless. Our job was to protect them…"

"And they thought they were protected-well until that White King Taijitu barrowed into the ground and broke into there. So much for the 'safe zone'" he grumbled darkly, "At least Gred died a hero's death instead of hiding despite not even having Aura."

Finding the body of Gred, half eaten and torn apart was not something that Jaune wanted to relive, ever. The closest thing that he could think of that could describe the experience was that someone drained his body from his body before pounding a hammer into his gut and proceeded to rip his heart out.

Gred was his _friend_.

"Yes, but many people just aren't suited to fighting and risking their lives like that."

Jaune bit on his lower lip, knowing that she was right. There were many types of people and in Remnant, despite some technological advances within the last century; everyone was hardwired to the conflict against the Grimm in some way. Some became Hunters, others became guards and so on but there were still a significant amount that simply weren't mentally equipped to handle _fear_ and _Grimm_ at the same time.

Despite the more combat-orientated lifestyles that most people in Remnant has, only a mere 10% of people were combat ready against Grimm. However despite this ratio disparity, life in Remnant seemed to revolve around Hunters in particular. They were the heroes, celebrities and stories on everyone's lips whenever something new comes up. And despite the _known_ death toll, many sign up for such a life for the fame and money mostly even if they often have much shorter lifespans short of the strongest Hunters that managed to survive.

Taking a deep breath in and out, avoiding trying to think about the _smell_ of the corpses on the other side and thus managing not to vomit, Jaune calmed himself of any kind of spite he had with the dead. There was really no point in doing so and he knew it and Pyrrha knew it.

"I know that better than most" he instead grumbled, "My parents seeing that I _sucked_ at swordsmanship than my siblings wanted me in a more…non-lethal lifestyle. Still I think they either accepted it as a fact or just gave up on me when I signed up as a Hunter causing them to stop trying to persuade me."

"Have you talked to them recently then?" Pyrrha asked, "I'm sure that they would know how you're doing right now."

"Not really" he shrugged.

Pyrrha frowned. It seemed to be a common thing when she heard something she particularly didn't like and it often came up especially when it came to his family. Not that he talked about them a lot. Sure he was close to them for a while but they were… _family_ and he didn't really want to talk about things that were rehashed too many times over dinner in the past.

"What?" he looked at her, "Most of the family are Hunters and sometimes have missions that takes weeks if not _months_. It's not unusual for someone in the family to fall off the grid for a while."

"But you're making it seem like you haven't talked to them for even longer…"

Jaune looked away guiltily.

"It's not like I had much to report them about. All it would do is confirm what they suspected before they send one of my sisters to drag me back home no matter what" he whispered.

His partner sent him another one of her reassuring smiles though it didn't make him feel that much better.

"Surely they would listen to you right now" she patted him.

"I really have no idea…" he moaned.

Really, he wasn't good at this emotional stuff like his sisters were. He didn't know what their reactions but he sure as know that his parents and particularly his mum would shout at him for _hours_ for not contacting them for so long. His dad…well the most he would get is a nod and nothing more with expectations that he was doing well on his own.

In many ways Jaune was closer to his sisters than his parents though his mum still somehow always worried about them all equally and too much. Due to being active Hunters as well as a need to feed _eight_ children, his parents often went into great lengths to do as many missions as possible to provide for them all. It wasn't like they neglected them. However there were times when they weren't there for months before reappearing for equally as long and so on.

However his thoughts were cut off with the sound of metal grinding and bending. Why they hadn't asked Pyrrha to just do it for them he had no idea…

"Okay, this is as bad as I thought it would be and little to hope for" said one of the Huntsman to the vault door.

"You think we should let the two-"

The first cut off by saying, "Might as well. It doesn't get better and they might as well get it done now."

"Get what done?" Jaune asked though he had a sinking feeling that it was already. Next to him, he felt Pyrrha shaking a bit.

Raising an eyebrow, the finely dressed Huntsman asked, "You two only have two years at best experience as a Hunter right?"

They nodded.

"Considering the age to which Hunters register being as early as 15 years old like you two from the look of it, the Guild and even the Academies tend to want to give you folks a year or two before you _really_ get into the business of Hunters" he explained.

The rougher looking Huntsman added, "And this isn't _just_ about hunting stronger Grimm and so on. This is something…worse than that."

"You mean the bodies" he horrifyingly stated.

Both Huntsmen look grim as they said, "Yes."

"You're asking us to clean up the bodies…" his partner said and asked at the same time. There was a hint of hope of _something_ but he didn't know what.

"Not exactly. In many cases when there are a _small_ number of causalities we can do that but when there are deaths over say…a hundred at _best_ here, we just don't bother with doing so. However we can't just leave the bodies here you know, diseases and such and not to mention the blow to morale if we actually do that."

The finely dressed Huntsman sighed, "Which is why we need to _carry_ the bodies out of here before cementing them. Both of you were oddly suited to the task considering your talents."

"Aura Soldiers is quite useful for not getting the blood literally on your hands…while Miss Champion over there is skilled enough to use the shovel and wheelbarrow as primitive and disgusting as it sounds" the other grinned though Jaune could see it was a bit too forced.

Taking a look at Pyrrha, he could see that she wasn't in a good state. Ironically enough, it was usually the other way around when it came to who was supporting who and Jaune had a feeling that he needed to support his partner now than ever before.

"Pyrrha…doesn't need to do that job. I have enough Aura to help get the job done. Plus she's probably the most exhausted out of everyone considering how much she fought" he said with a bit of steel in his tone.

"….."

Three Huntsmen looked at each other with one Huntress confused.

"Fine. She can set up a place where we deliver the bodies to be put to rest" the finely dressed Huntsman said before going past the bent vault door. The other Huntsman smirked before heading into the vault as well.

"Jaune…"

"I'm fine with this" he assured, "And I'm not kidding that you are _exhausted_. Search out a place; sent a message and let me and the others pick up the slack for a bit…you don't need to see the bodies."

The red-head stared at him for a good few moments without blinking. Part of him wanted to flinch considering how intense the stare was but he managed to do so, if struggling for a good few seconds before Pyrrha said, "I will do that…after I look at the bodies."

And before he could say anything else she placed a finger on his lips, "I will see them anyway and it's better to be _with_ you when you do so as well then away and slowly see the results later."

"…Fine."

In a morbid way, Jaune was a bit curious of the state of the inside of the vault. He had little _need_ to know what was inside since he could probably guess what happened but there was this…strange compulsion to see what he failed to protect was.

 _And to see what could've been avoided_.

Several steps in and through the vault door, he noticed that there was a strange crunch when he stepped inside. He wished he didn't look down, and he wished he didn't look up and everywhere else.

The two Huntsmen didn't comment as Jaune paled at the sight of broken bodies with red _redRED_ everywhere and proceeded to dry heave at the sight though nothing was inside of his stomach since a while back.

Pyrrha wasn't that much better and leaned on Jaune for some support.

 _In front of them was a sea of red blood, gore and countless stained bodies in pieces_.

-o-

His fingers were shaking a bit and he knew that his face was pale as he pressed the buttons to call. Seeing _that_ sight, Jaune had taken his partner's advice in stride and decided it was time to call his family again…and hope that they don't find him and drag him back home.

 _Brinnng Brinnng_

 _"Hello? Joan Arc here"_ his mother said casually before her eyes widened at his appearance through the call.

Gulping, he muttered out, "Hey mum."

 _"….Jaune?"_

"Yeah it's me. Sorry for not calling for 2 years. It's kind of been a hectic day so far and my partner told me to call you so…"

 _"I see. In other words you almost died or something really bad happened to you and you wanted to at least reconnect to the rest of the family before you did something and die along the way."_

Jaune flinched at the tone his mother had but didn't deny any of it. He really didn't have any rights considering how his parents and siblings did their best to take care of him, the youngest.

"Well to be honest, nothing much happened for almost two years. Really, I was more concern that you or anyone else from the family would fine me and drag me back home to be locked up somewhere" he sheepishly said.

His mother snorted.

 _"Bianca and Olivia may when you consider how they coddle everyone. But your fate was sealed when you signed up to be a Huntsman through the Guild. There was no way to take you back without the Guild destroying us in retaliation."_

"Huh? I thought only the big four Academies do that."

 _"The Guild is big on freedom and individual choice"_ she said, _"Unless you wanted to retire, no one could stop you even if it means your death. Though I suspect you learnt that the hard way."_

"Yeah" he nodded, "Grimm invasion. Town is practically dead and almost everyone died. Don't know how I survived despite fighting so much…if I didn't have my Aura Soldier skill."

 _"Aura Soldier. Isn't that a powerful skill for someone not ranked that high?"_ he could see his mother's eyebrow raised, questioning.

He shrugged not sure what the big deal was, "Gred gave me the instructions for the skill when he found out how much Aura I had. I'm still not sure why though I'll probably never know what he saw in me…"

 _"Most likely your large Aura reserves and potential there as well as the Arc Family name. You have no idea of how many get more opportunities based off the names they carry rather than their actual potential."_ she deadpanned.

He considered that for a moment before dismissing it. There was no point in sullying of what he believed Gred to be now that he was dead. There was only grief and pain in that kind of path. Jaune rather just let things lie than be confronted by too many harsh truths and grow mad.

"So…" trying to draw the conversation to anywhere else and therefore could only ask, "How's the rest of the family?"

 _"Not asking how_ I'm _doing Jaune? I'm hurt"_ she pouted, _"But since you insisted, Bianca and Rosemary are currently on a mission together near Mountain Glenn about some reports on increased Grimm activity. They'll be back in a month or so. Olivia is helping some research in Atlas. I think she said something about automated robots. Indigo is flying near Mistral to visit mother taking Violet and Jade with her. And Aqua is trying and failing to tell me and your father that she's a lesbian in fear which is_ completely _ridiculous!"_

Jaune blinked to that last statement, "Huh. I thought it was only Jade…"

 _"Of course not"_ his mother scoffed, " _You'll be surprised of how many Huntresses bat for both teams. It relieves a lot of stress and men tend to not get as angry if we play around with other women just like we don't get as angry when men play around with other men like that."_

"MUM!"

Jaune paled at the implication and the imagery that was just placed in his head. He did _not_ need to have that image in his head right now.

 _"What? I'm certainly sure that you're old enough to talk about these kinds of things without blanching like that. You had two years as a Hunter._ Someone _must have explained this to you be then. That or unless you somehow managed to isolate yourself from other Hunters. By that point I question why you even left in the first place."_

Unfortunately, what his mother said was more accurate than he wanted. Hopefully his mother didn't hear him cough.

 _"I can see you coughing Jaune"_ she deadpanned again before sighing, " _Knowing you, you somehow managed to be partnerless for the entire time till this call."_

"Hey!" he protested, "I _do_ have a partner. And a good one as well that helps me with my training."

 _"And when did this happen young man?"_

"…Three months ago" he admitted with a blush.

He could see the seeming exhausted expression on his mum's face right now as she seemed to age a bit before his eyes, _"So a year and a half. More than a year and a half without a partner and I doubt you even entered many parties or groups for the same reasons. That amount of time without back-up…it's a miracle that you didn't die."_

"I have a lot of Aura. That helps when blocking attacks…that and apparently my Semblance is akin to a second life when it comes to fatal hits. It activated a few times before I-well my partner realised what was happening."

Strangely enough, that did not calm her at all.

 _"You do realise that telling me that you almost_ died _a few times and only survived thanks to you semblance is_ not _a good way to reassure me at all"_ Joan screamed.

He whined at the tone but didn't retort. Thinking about it, the way he…expressed how he survived all the times he should've died like that. If he heard any other member of his family do the same then he would've been worried shocked as well.

"Sorry sorry" Jaune waved frantically, "Throughout everything I made sure to prioritise my life first. My semblance only activated…like _four_ times in the last 2 years. The entire time, that's the number of time that I was even _close_ to possible death."

 _"That's…a lot lower than I expected though I suppose that happens with easier missions…"_ she trailed off before smirking, _"Who is your partner by the way? Is it a girl? You father did say that a pretty girl was the only way to motivate you to train."_

Jaune groaned with his hands to his face, "Fine. I will tell you about _her_. But no comments about my relationship with her in any and _all_ forms. And _nothing_ about Grandchild okay?"

Joan could only pouted to that.

-o-

In a way, the cremation of everyone who had died was worse than actually shifting through and gathering them in one place. For one, this event was with everyone else that survived and that was already a low enough numbers. The more horrifying thing was that they couldn't grieve that long else attract more Grimm to the area.

Because of this, a day after the battle itself and when search and rescue finished, the civilians weren't told of the actual _numbers_ of deaths and the toll it had on the area, region and Vale as a whole. That made sense; control information to make sure that everything seemed all right to reduce panic.

However Hunters needed to be in the know. And therefore a person from the Guild was dispatched to summarise and report the information around about this incident and what was the cause to make sure that this would be less likely to happen in the future. It was, in a way to keep track of everything that was happening as much as possible.

This was why there was a man dressed more like one of those Atlas robot units was standing in front of the eight Hunters that were all that were left of the defence by the end of the incident yesterday that killed this town.

"Hello I am the Official sent by the Guild to lead this proceeding. Please just call me Official under the duration of this meeting. Is there any questions or inquiries that need to be asked now before we start?" he asked and no one commented at all.

Nodding along the Official proceeded to say, "We will now commence the revision report of Incident Mission ID 00250098; protection of Section G-67 Town-34 followed up by Mission ID 00250347; search and rescue. Are all the associated Hunters to this incident here?"

Jaune looked around a bit before nodding with everyone else.

"Right" the Official agreed to that not even bothering to really confirm what had already been confirmed, "Fortunately we don't need to have a complete recap of _everything_ that happened because we don't have enough sources to build a complete picture. However from your testimonies from last night, I have summarised the incident report."

"Roughly 6.45 AM was when the attack, known as the Grimm Horde first occurred on the western flank where one of the two Gates to the town was. The ongoing battle which consisted of an initial 27 Hunters on sight with an average strength of E rank to a further 11 Hunters as Reinforcements which pushed up the average strength of the Hunters forces overall to D rank and later C rank resulted in the battles ending at 8.54 AM."

"According to the data stipend from each of your A.U.R.A systems as well the black boxes from the systems of the deceased, there were a total of 1366 Grimm in total involved in this Grimm Horde making it a Class D risk being a risk to small towns though it almost became a Class C risk to the region due to the addition of 2 B rank threats being the King Taijitus. Data shows that there were roughly 754 Boarbatusk, 376 Beowolves, 198 Ursai, 36 Death Stalkers and 2 King Taijitus of varying strengths in total being confirmed slain."

"The first stage of the Grimm Invasion consisted from 6.45 AM to 8.23 AM where the majority of the battles were at the two gates of Town-34. The second stage of the Grimm Invasion started at 8.24 AM and ended at 8.54 AM when two B rank King Taijitu Grimms destroyed one of the defence lines and forced themselves into the town completely. However, the remaining Grimm were routed at their appearance."

"Wait" said Jaune causing the Official to pause, "Why did the rest of the Grimm run away? They would've caused more damage if they all stayed and attacked."

"There is, despite what many believe, a hierarchy to the Grimm and within each species after a certain point. The majority, weaker Grimm don't do much besides charge, swarm with numbers and hope to kill the foe but there are some instincts that don't disappear no matter how beast-like they are. Stronger Grimm command weaker Grimm with no exception except for their _species_. A Giant Nevermore may command regular Nevermores but not Beowolves or Ursai. Due to the appearance of a superior King Taijitu than usual, the rest of the Grimm opted to escape else be used as food as well. Like I said, instincts" the Official explained.

"Got it" he nodded. Not many people wanted to explain the Grimm in much detail besides how to kill them and how to avoid being killed by them. Jaune guessed that people simply didn't want to associate Grimm even with normal animals and beasts of the world.

"Are there any other questions beside's Mr Arc?" the Official asked causing him to blush.

A bit of him wanted to not ask the question but he was really just satisfied that none of the other Hunters said anything about him asking stuff.

"The causality list records a total of 153 deaths. 30 of those are of Hunters present else reinforcements from close by. A further 25 of the recorded deaths are the Town-guards with Aura and 27 deaths are from the Town-guards without Aura. The remaining 71 deaths are all civilian related. Fortunately there are still 23 other civilians alive to be relocated within the week. 22 of said civilians were saved during Mission ID 00250347 and recovered from the wreckage of their homes which were during the time 8.54 AM to 5.32 PM."

"The cause of this incident has been deemed to be due to the over-farming of Grimm in this area without authorisation. Reports have been sent from this Guild Branch of concerns of increased levels of Grimm. Furthermore, there have been what are called 'Grimm Pits' shattered around this town's area that caused the trapped Grimm to call out for any allies nearby. Because of this, the perpetrators that have been killed during the Grimm Horde Invasion will not have their families compensated under the Guild's rules."

Hearing these statistics in such a monotone voice was…numbing, especially how the families of those who caused so many deaths would be dealt with. There were some that send untrained children into the Hunter lifestyle just to reap the benefits of their deaths or lives if possible.

And more than that made Jaune realise how small he was in the system that managed the lives and deaths of everyone inside of Vale. What was he compared to the people who died? What of their dreams, hope and futures?

"The summary reports of Mission ID 00250098 and Mission ID 00250347 have been concluded" said the Official, "You will all be rewarded 5000 Lien for each life saved during Mission ID 00250347 which totals to 110 000 Lien in total without any tax as per Guild guidelines for such a mission. Please confirm the transfer."

 **[Accept Transfer of 110 000 Lien from Guild Official towards Jaune Arc's A.U.R.A Account? Y/N?]**

Jaune selected yes.

 **[Transfer complete]**

 **[Do you wish to allocate the reward to pay off your remaining 138 000 Lien debt to the Guild? Y/N?]**

He considered the question and eventually opted to choose 'Y'. He did want to pay off his debt sooner or later and he might as well do so now before he would be bothered to do so later.

 **[Transfer complete. Your current debt: 28 000 Lien]**

Seeing the amount, Jaune felt it was really now much more manageable. Despite not having the huge lien rewards the others seemed excited for, he was closer to being debts free, meaning the capability to retire in the future.

"Hazel Hazel. Do you know how _many_ dresses I can buy with this?" he heard Lavender whisper to her partner.

Said partner whispered back, "Not now. Official business isn't done yet."

If the Official (and he doubted he didn't not hear) heard what Lavender said, he made no comment on it. Just like he made no comments on the rather large shouts of 'drinking money' from the senior Hunter team here…

"I will now allocate the rewards from Mission ID 00250098. Starting from the Hunter Team: Dark Sea Burn. In total, you as a team and registered as such killed a total of 32 Grimm. Each of you also share a B rank kill of a sole King Taijitu. Please confirm the amount paid to your A.U.R.A accounts."

"Got it" said their leader before they started to leave the site. Ying waved at them as he left and he in turn got waves from Lavender, Pyrrha and him while Hazel simply nodded to the senior Huntsman.

The Official now turned to the four of them.

"E rank Huntsman Jaune Arc is partnered with C rank Huntress Pyrrha Nikos while E rank Huntsman Hazel Hazumon is similarly partnered with E rank Huntress Lavender Lotus" he said, "Due to this, under the associated guidelines to Hunters teaming up, Huntsman Jaune Arc will have a total of 30% of the Lien between the both of them while Huntress Pyrrha Nikos will gain a total of 70%. However Huntsman Hazel Hazumon will share exactly half of the Lien gained from his venture with Huntress Lavender Lotus. Speak now if you wish to change these settings."

"Pyrrha?" he turned to his red-head partner, question on his lips ready to be spoken if she wanted this.

He knew that she got a much greater kill count in both quantity and quality meaning he was taking some of her efforts from her. However she shook her head causing him to sigh. They had argued a few times before he had just given up on splitting the profits to her favour a while back.

"We're fine" he nodded to the Official.

"Us too" Hazel replied as well.

"Understood, who would like to proceed first?" the Official asked with Lavender responding quickly with, "Oh! Us! I want to know what we got from killing all of those nasty Grimm."

Seeing no response of Jaune and Pyrrha, the Official started to speak.

"In total, Huntsman Hazel Hazumon has a total of 98 confirmed kills including a shared B rank kill. Likewise, Huntress Lavender Lotus has a total of 85 confirmed kills including the same shared B rank kill. This totals up to 182 Grimm kills between the two of you" the Official paused, "Would you like a break down on the Grimm to Lien count?"

"Sure!" the Huntress babbled out excitedly.

"In order from lowest to highest Lien rewards we have, Boarbatusks which count as 500 Lien per kill to which totals up to 73 confirmed kills to which 23 of them were Boarbatusks Majors which are 1500 Lien per kill totalling to 59 500 Lien, Beowolves which count as 2000 Lien per kill to which totals up to 48 confirmed kills to which 12 were Beowolves Majors which are 4500 Lien per kill totalling to 126 000 Lien, Ursai which count as 5000 Lien per kill to which total up to 24 confirmed kills to which 4 were Usai Majors which count as 30 000 Lien per kill totalling up to 240 000 Lien, Nevermores which also count as 5000 per kill to which total up to 36 confirmed kills totalling up to 180 000 Lien and finally the King Taijitu which counts as 50 000 Lien per kill though this is was a King Taijitu Major which are 750 000 Lien although half is shared towards the other party which leaves you gaining 375 000 Lien from your kill. This totals up to a shared 980 500 Lien before tax. After the 10% Guild tax and a further 10% for the Vale King tax, you have a total of 784 400 between Huntsman Hazel Hazumon and Huntress Lavender Lotus to which each will have 392 200 Lien to individual gain."

"Please confirm the transaction."

"…."

There was a silence in the room as everyone with the exception of the Official swallowed the amount of Lien that was just _gained_.

 _They almost gained a million Lien before tax_ , thought Jaune with awe and shock. That amount of Lien was probably more than what he and Pyrrha could've made if they kept on working in this town for a whole year.

" _Ohmygod!_ I can get all those upgrades on my weapons!" Lavender gushed as Hazel still seemed frozen on the spot, "I can probably buy those _decent_ Hunter materials to upgrade my armour as well!"

The Huntress wriggled on the spot before shouting out, " _This is awesome!_ "

Jaune was in shock at what Lavender was doing right now and was surprised at the _pained_ look that Hazel seemed to be having.

" _Lavender_ " he hissed out before shooting a glare, "Remember _how_ we got those kills to gain that Lien!"

The violet woman grumbled a bit but said nothing else as Hazel's words sunk down his stomach. Normally the amount of Grimm kills that one could expect from this area was at best in the low dozens at worst. With the Grimm Horde, they had _hundreds_ to kill which only compounded the amount of Lien each of them got.

While a usual venturing of Grimm subjugation usually netted a team anywhere and up to 50 000 Lien per trip before the expenses pop up, it was rare to even get anything over 100 000 Lien for a single mission considering that most missions were up to D rank in nature. And that didn't consider the bounties off each kill they got from the Grimm attacking,

However while the pricing of each kill seemed to be more and more inflated the higher the threat ratings, it sort of made sense. F rank threat kills were pretty much common change compared to C rank threat kills and especially B rank threat kills. Not to mention that they almost _died_ against a B rank threat, only winning due to luck more than anything else.

From what he could tell F rank threat kills were below 1000~ Lien on average, E rank threat kills were 1000-3000~ Lien, D rank threat kills were 3000-10 000~ Lien, C rank threat kills were 10 000+ Lien and B rank threat kills were minimum 500 000+ Lien. A rank threat kills were probably above 1 000 000 Lien in rewards.

At the same time, Jaune's mind went towards _what_ threat ratings were. F-D rank threats seemed individualistic in nature or towards small groups. However C rank threats seemed to affect towns, B rank threats were towns minimum and region threats as a possibility and he didn't even know or want to know what A or S rank threats could be a danger to.

But at the same time, Jaune was a bit afraid of what kind of Lien he and Pyrrha could be getting if Hazel and Lavender almost got a million Lien from this mission…

"Proceeding to the second party's rewards" the Official said nonchalantly, "In total, Huntsman Jaune Arc has a total of 66 confirmed kills including a shared B rank kill. Likewise, Huntress Pyrrha Nikos has a total of 187 confirmed kills including the same shared B rank kill. This totals up to 252 Grimm kills between the two of you."

Jaune blinked at the number of Grimm Pyrrha managed to kill. Although he knew that she was the main defence focal point for one of the Gate battles, he didn't know she managed to kill that many Grimm!

"Would you like a break down on the Grimm to Lien count?" the Official asked.

"Yeah sure" he replied.

"In order from lowest to highest Lien rewards we have, Boarbatusks which count as 500 Lien per kill to which totals up to 120 confirmed kills to which 44 of them were Boarbatusks Majors which are 1500 Lien per kill totalling to 104 000 Lien, Beowolves which count as 2000 Lien per kill to which totals up to 67 confirmed kills to which 31 were Beowolves Majors which are 4500 Lien per kill totalling to 211 500 Lien, Ursai which count as 5000 Lien per kill to which total up to 48 confirmed kills to which 13 were Usai Majors which count as 30 000 Lien per kill totalling up to 565 000 Lien, , Death Stalkers which count as 65 000 Lien per kill to which totals up to 16 confirmed kills totalling up to 1 040 000 Lien and finally the King Taijitu which counts as 50 000 Lien per kill though this is was a King Taijitu Major which are 750 000 Lien although half is shared towards the other party which leaves you gaining 375 000 Lien from your kill. This totals up to a shared 2 295 500 Lien before tax. After the 10% Guild tax and a further 10% Value Kingdom tax you have a total of 1 836 400 Lien between Huntsman Jaune Arc and Huntress Pyrrha Nikos to which the former will gain a total of 30% which will be 550 920 Lien while the latter will gain a total of 70% which will be 1 285 480 Lien to individual gains."

Holy Shit.

 _Holy Shit_ that was a lot of money. And even though he only got 30% of their total earnings, he still got more Lien than either Hazel or Lavender individually.

Looking at his partner, she seemed a lot less affected than he was strangely enough. Did she handle a lot of money in the past?

"Sponsors and winning Tournaments gave me a lot of Lien back then" the red-head explained, reading his thoughts from his expression, "That and good quality Hunter equipment are _expensive_ to the point that it's common for them to cost up to several million lien depending on what you want."

"Is there a reason why for that?" he asked. The current sword and shield he had on him _only_ cost him 10 000 Lien a piece.

"Like I said before, shape-shifting technology" she said, "But it gets even more expensive when you consider the type of metal you want in your weapon and especially when you consider weight options and space options."

"Oh."

For some reason, he felt that he learnt about this before…

"Please confirm the transaction."

 **[Accept Transfer of 550 920 Lien from Guild Official towards Jaune Arc's A.U.R.A Account? Y/N?]**

Jaune's finger shook as he accepted the transfer and he gulped at the amount of Lien he just got.

 **[Transfer complete]**

 **[Do you wish to allocate the reward to pay off your remaining 28 000 Lien debt to the Guild? Y/N?]**

He accepted this as well.

 **[Transfer complete. Your current debt: 0 Lien]**

The fingers of the blonde Huntsman relaxed as he sighed in relief.

He had finally paid off his debt and in one sitting as well. Despite of _how_ he gained the Lien from the Grimm kills (he doubt they could've gained this much here without a Grimm Invasion and no one should ever wish for gaining Lien from this kind of thing), part of Jaune was a bit more confident now that he had a certain amount of capital to buy things he wanted and needed.

But it seemed that the Official wasn't done just yet.

"The Guild has one final order of business with you all" he said, "Due to the accomplishment of surviving this ordeal, we had revised on your stats and skills as well as your experiences. As such, Huntress Pyrrha Nikos will be recommended into B rank when the time comes when she is ready and Huntsman Hazel Hazumon, Huntress Lavender Lotus and Huntsman Jaune Arc will all be promoted to D rank."

At the moment the Official said those last words, a message appeared quite prominently for Jaune through his A.U.R.A system.

 **[Congratulations. Through your achievements, you have been promoted to being a D rank Huntsman]**

 **[The Following is now accessible for you:**

· **D rank Missions**

· **Grade 4 Dust Purchase Options**

· **Grade 4 Metal Purchase Options**

o **More Weapon and Armour customisation options**

· **10% Discount on all Guild associated stores]**

Reading the list of changes and new accesses he got from being promoted to D rank, Jaune barely noticed that the Official was leaving, not that he was stopping him. From what he could tell, there was a direct increase in what he could do with his lien now.

Dust and similarly enough, certain metals good enough for extensive Hunter usage are graded from 1-10 and with the higher the grade, the greater the effect as well as efficiency and in the case of Dust, the more explosive the effects are. In many ways, you could measure the grade of the Dust via the scale of the explosion it makes. Chances are, anything above Grade 5 could possibly destroy a house and it only scales upwards even more from there on.

Therefore, letting the more powerful Dust into the hands of inexperienced Hunters through the Guild was a bad idea.

The same was with certain metals as well though for different reasons. Normal Iron and Steel frankly didn't cut it to combat against Grimm above a certain level. Even enhanced with Aura, there was only so much that could be reinforced. Then, with time Hunters found that certain metals channelled Aura better than others but at the same time being more brittle while others were more indestructible by being infused with Aura on forging but at the cost of not being able to channel Aura as well.

Eventually, experimentation came and went and with it, a new type of metal that could _both_ channel Aura through it excessively well and at the same time was durable enough to be used. Naturally Hunter commissioned for such weapons and allowed them a lot of customisation in how they were made.

One could have a sword that had a nil indestructible core and replaceable blades that could channel a lot of Aura per hit to have the most effective cutting power. While others could go with the opposite route and have the most power with an effective core that could channel Aura through and the edge or impact zone being extremely durable to any kind of damage. Of course this isn't even considering shape-shifting weapons that made things just more complicated and customisable in how they shift and how _fast_ and how durable and flexible this shift was.

But despite how usable these kinds of metals were, they were expensive to make and therefore expensive to purchase and later maintain in proper shape. Basically, higher grade metals are restricted to higher rank Hunters not because of the dangers but rather just because of resource management. You tend to want your strongest Hunters equipped better than anyone else. That was a simple enough logic that many understood even if it potentially gets lower ranked Hunters killed.

It was a matter of who was more potentially useful for humanity. The few higher ranked Hunters or the few lower ranked Hunters that might get that metal to use for their own use.

It wasn't like most of the lower ranked Hunters even had a Lien to purchase any high grade metals to be used to upgrade their gear with. And even with the half a million lien he had, Jaune could at best, barely fully equip himself with a decent weapon and shield if he wanted to use Grade 4 Metal that was also fully customisable with shape-shifting and other minor tech in it.

Like Pyrrha once explained, Hunter equipment is _expensive_ for good reason and he had a good feeling that anything above Grade 5 Metal would cost over a million liens per item he wanted to have built or upgraded and that going to one direction of having more sturdy gear or more powerful gear. Having both would only increase the costs further.

Before leaving the temporary established Guild building for what remains of this town, Jaune remembered:

 _There is good reason why especially Hunter weapons of a high quality are usually worth more than even military ships._

-o-

In the end, it took a little under a week for everything to be sorted out. By that time, the remaining civilians were transferred onto other towns, the town was declared destroyed and even his wounds healed completely. Now it was time for them to leave.

"Activate A.U.R.A scan"

 **Name ID: Jaune Arc**

 **Huntsman ID: 341544**

 **Huntsman Rank: D**

 **Stats: [+]**

 **Skills: [+]**

 **Money: 540 927 Lien**

Jaune sighed at both the Huntsman Rank he now had as well as the amount of Lien he had on his account. Both would lead him far, especially the money. New gear was something he had in mind and he was curious of what added effects some of them may have. But first…

"Where do we go now?" he wondered.

His partner sat next to him with a thoughtful hum before saying, "I suppose towards the capital? We will eventually end up there but without a bullhead or transport, we need to walk there which will take a while."

"Thank god for that" he grumbled good-naturedly. Not that he was mad at walking, in fact it was the opposite. Despite the healing powers of Aura, it seemed to not affect how he always seemed to gain motion sickness whenever on an air-travel vehicle.

"Still, the long travel time may affect your training Jaune" said Pyrrha, "We won't have a safe place for you to fully train without risking your life in some way."

Hearing that Pyrrha was talking about more training, Jaune huffed at her, "You know, training isn't everything. In a way, fighting Grimm is training enough and considering what we experienced last week, I expect that a couple of my stats increased by more than what I usually gain by training."

Rolling her eyes, she punched him lightly to the shoulder, "That's because last week you were forced to fight with her body as well as your Aura Soldiers. That skill is quickly becoming a clutch for you."

The blonde stared at her in horror.

"But you can have one to make sure you live if you manage to screw up" she giggled, "In a way, your semblance is really useful for training. You simply won't die if you make a mistake which is really relieving for any trainer."

Jaune suddenly had a feeling that Pyrrha was going to be even harsher than before to make up for any time that they would later miss from walking. Not to mention now that she decided to make things more difficult for him.

It was only natural for him to try and convince her otherwise.

"H-Hey-" he started to say before he was cut off.

"Jaune."

Turning over he saw both Hazel and Lavender who seemed to have repaired their equipment as much as possible. He noted that neither of them had upgraded their gear but it might be because this town didn't have any supplies for them to upgrade their stuff or they're saving for better materials than on hand.

He didn't know what grade their equipment was but they were well better equipped than him with Grade 1 stuff. He would need to fix that later and hopefully get Grade 3, maybe Grade 4 gear if he could afford it.

Maybe get a shape-shifting weapon customised for him…

"Hazel. Lavender. What's up?" he asked. They talked for bit for a while during the last week but there was nothing like that battle the week before. Really, they hadn't even trained together when Pyrrha started his training again.

The pair of Hunters looked at each other before Hazel asked, "Do you have any room in your party?"

"Yeah! We wanna join in" said Lavender cheerfully.

A lot of thoughts went through his mind at that moment. Jaune quickly concluded that the two Hunters wanted a) Safety in numbers b) Safety in Pyrrha and c) Was heading the same way as them. And he couldn't blame them. The greatest risk in working alone in the profession of being a Hunter is no safety net for mistakes of any kind.

With a single partner, much of that risk is alleviated but in a team of 4, the risk is reduced to the point that even Hunter Academies place their students in teams of 4 to maximum their safety and minimise the numbers needed for each team. With that fact, it wasn't surprising that having Hazel and Lavender, both skilled enough Hunters that things would be easier for him and Pyrrha.

More eyes meant more people keeping an eye out in both day and night. And with the two of them added to the team, the range of training he could do under Pyrrha would increase as well. That and more allies were always a good thing to have.

Raising his hands he asked, "Do you two really want to do this? I mean, most of the time we'll be training…well training me that is. Pyrrha will probably drag you two into that training as well."

Lavender looked amused, "Of course! Super awesome _time-skipping_ training is always needed to get strong."

"H-Huh? What was that?"

"Don't worry about it" said Hazel quickly, "Lavender says things weirdly once in a while. Still, we'll be happy to join you two, at least until we both reach our destination."

Quickly glancing at Pyrrha, he saw her smile and nod. Taking that as a sign of agreement, Jaune declared with a bright smile:

"Welcome to the team!"

-o-

On top of the highest peak of the Capital of Vale stood Beacon and it was rightly named so as no other place on Remnant was close to producing both the quality and quantity of Hunters as them. What was most remarkable of Beacon was not only the quality of its, students but rather so the teachers and the courses they teach. Every single Hunter-Teacher there was an A ranker, _minimum_.

And above even the teachers was one of the few S rank Huntsmen in the world. The 'Headmaster' Ozpin whose mastery of all forms of combat, armed, unarmed and dust made him the most suitable for protecting one of the most locations on Remnant. But besides leading the role of guiding others, he had another job that he shared with the Council of Vale and the Master of the Guild Association, otherwise known as 'The Guild'.

Barring the former that worked mainly on civilian matters, Ozpin worked heavily with the Guild on Hunter matters. It was a thankless job that had long hours and little to show but the temporary and often disrupted stability of Vale. It was little wonder why the Headmaster required so much coffee in his system. Still, every single report of a dead Hunter or a dead town made him grimaced to how much they are pushed by the Grimm.

"In Section G-67 of Vale, Town-34 has been reported to have perished due to unsustainable population numbers" he read off the report.

Fortunately there were survivors even though both Hunter and civilian survivors were low in the end. Still, as he read further of the report that the Guild had given him, Ozpin continued to grimace and frown at certain parts. The fact that the invasion was due to a Grim Horde was unexpected but more distressing was because it was due to overjealous Hunters that didn't follow protocol.

The Grimm while mindless beasts were more cunning than most expected or wanted to believe. If some of their brethren are trapped, they will come to the calls of distress. And if said Grimm in the area are hunted too many times along with the cries of distress from the Grimm…

Well there are reasons why Grimm Hordes are a thing.

 _"Ozpin_."

The unique screen that was one of the few that wasn't connected to the A.U.R.A system flicked on and showed the face of a young woman with golden eyes that was only shadowed by her black hair. This woman despite her age was the Head and Guildmaster of the Guild Association and someone he worked with closely.

Cinder Fall.

"Hello Cinder" he said without even looking at her.

He knew that it infuriated her that he didn't even bother to look at her when there were many from both genders that would usually stare at her when they first see her for many reasons. This was simply one more of the games that they played.

 _"You got the most recent report of the most recent destroyed town right?"_ she asked not even showing any sign that she was pissed at him.

He nodded while sipping on some coffee, "Yes. We will need to commission another town to be made in order to recover the ground lost."

In a way, the game that humanity plays with the Grimm was like a game. Too little people and Hunters on their side and the Grimm will attack. At the same time too many people and Hunters means they will attacks even more and harder than before. Population control was a thing after a certain point. The more people in an area, the more likely it is for them to attract Grimm to attack them.

Therefore, with the exception of Vale itself, no other cities are allowed to be created and no towns above a certain population size are allowed to expand.

Unfortunate as it is, they simply couldn't build a giant wall around the areas they wanted to protect and just protect the walls. The Grimm spawned anywhere and _everywhere_. Even inside the capital itself, Grimm spawned though _never_ directly in sight and usually someone would be quick enough to kill them before they do anything damaging.

If even Grimm spawned from time to time in a place where almost every single location was monitored – which was expensive to do – then what of other places that did not have eyes in all the right places? They would simply be destroyed and that was that. Therefore it was better to have many smaller towns and villages than larger towns and cities despite the disadvantages of doing so.

Of course as cold hearted as that may be, it was also much easier to replace towns this way.

The population of the town wasn't even at 200 people. Adding each town up with similar numbers made each region worth roughly 1000 people in total…and if you add up each region with similar numbers, then the Kingdom of Vale wouldn't even surpass 100 000 people in total.

Despite Aura and countless ways to save and extent lives as much as possible, most people didn't get to die a natural death. The Grimm is the main cause but there was the Great War in recent decades that dropped the population of Remnant by _half_ and the number is slowly but surely falling with more and more territory being lost due to conflict with the White Fang, Ozpin knew that humanity was being driven into extinction.

He needed to do everything to increase humanity's numbers while making sure this rapid increase in population didn't end up with the largest Grimm Horde in history killing them all. It was a precious balance and why he and many of similar positions like him were stressed.

 _"Still as unfortunate as it may be, uneducated Hunters from the Guild was the cause. They paid with their lives and their families in the end live with no benefits from their deaths"_ Cinder added.

"I see" Ozpin replied though confused why she was admitting a mistake from her organisation, "Would you like some of my students and Hunters to patrol a bit more in the area? Do we need to change some of the Hunter allocations again?"

 _"No need. My Hunters were well capable enough to dealing with the extra Grimm. There are a couple of gems,_ E rankers _taking out a_ B rank threat _. Not even your precious students can do that"_ she boasted.

"Not much of a boast when you _lost_ the town and almost everyone in it" he casually replied, "That and I believe Miss Nikos who was a C rank Huntress was there. Not to mention those E rank Hunters were closer to D rank Hunters in strength."

Cinder snorted, _"Weren't you the one who said that hope is the best thing humanity can get? New uprising heroes are good for that."_

"Dreams and Reality are often two very different things. No need to pressure them to what they are not…yet" he cautioned, "That and I believe to take a more passive role in guiding people Cinder. They are not pawns that will jump to their deaths on command."

The Guildmaster laughed, _"Of course. You have to make sure that they believe that it was their choice to die for humanity. It's a bit sad how it is so easy to fool so many to die for the cause."_

A pause.

 _"Remember that the role of the Hunter is for humanity as a whole Ozpin. The individual does not matter compared to the rest of humanity. Even your students, and especially the few that you pay more attention to are not exception to this. Don't baby them too much, they will die later for that. People you tend to take interest in seem to always get it over their heads that they are untouchable"_ she warned tapping her finger on her desk.

 _"Team RWBY, led by Ruby Rose with members that include Weiss Schnee that is publically known as the Schnee Cooperation Heir, Blake Belladonna who is a White Fang defector and a closet Faunas at the moment and Yang Xiao-Long who once made underground news as a powerful brawler. Most noteworthy thing about them was foiling a White Fang operation recently"_ she recounted with ease, _"It's almost as if you're trying to remake Team STQR and their troublesome habits of being in the centre of national incidents."_

A beat.

"Unlike what it may seem to certain others, I never had those intentions. That and who they partnered up with and later team up with depended more on skill and luck than intentions" he protested.

 _"With that method, you either have brilliant teams or abysmal ones"_ she snorted, _"It's no wonder why so many of your students die during second year. It takes more than a few life and death battles to fully trust strangers and especially ones you dislike."_

"Still" Ozpin said, "I wonder when this became about how I train my students than about how _your_ Hunters managed to lose a town like that? Should we talk about the Guild's oversights in more details or should I get the Council a call to help aid me in figuring out how screwed the situation was and could've been prevented?"

Another beat.

 _"Always nice talking to you Ozpin. Make sure the preparations to the Vytal Festival go smoothly. I may send some Guild Teams your way to compete this time if you do well_ " she smiled before cutting the call.

Taking a few breaths and another sip from his coffee, he tried to keep his mind off the conversation he just had before grimacing like every time Cinder called him. Everything from how he talked, positioned himself to the information he gave and reacted to, were all calculated.

It was after all a game to them.

The most dangerous game in fact, which used _people_ and _Hunters_ as pawns that may war against each other at any moment. They were two different factions, both with their own unique and equally dangerous resources to help prevent with extinction of Humanity by the Grimm. However they were in the end, enemies.

One gathered in the capital where the most powerful were and transported from there.

The other spread across the Kingdom where they covered the most ground and acted from there.

Two different approaches. Quality and Quantity. Either one could be made much more efficient if the other's operations was consumed but they wouldn't and couldn't no matter what other people said or wanted.

Simply because they knew the danger of having one and not both and they knew how-no _when_ they would counter each other if the worse came to be.

 _One of them was Salem's pawn._

 _They just did not know which one._

 _Yet._

 _Until then…_

 _The Games Continues._

 **End of Arc 1: The Storybook Prologue**

* * *

 **A/N: Well this took a long time to write. Looking at it now, I didn't realise I wrote 18K worth of words. The battle scenes at the beginning took 7K words which was admittedly a bit longer than I had intended. Still, I always wanted to do a _awesome speech_ moment for Jaune.**

 **Anyway, there's not much to talk about in this chapter...well quite a bit if I wanted to but that would just turn my A/N super long -.- The plan for this chapter was basically Battle Scene - Reaction Scenes - Hazel POV - Lavender POV - Leaving Scene and finally - Ozpin + Cinder Scene. The part with Jaune's mum was a random piece that got added on later because of the content I wrote in the chapter.**

 **On another note, I kind of modeled Hazel and Lavender off Ren and Nora, well at least how sane either characters seemed to be. Because of this, I'm kind of on a fence on whether to kill them off/let them leave to allow Ren and Nora in so team JPNR will be a thing in this series considering I made team RWBY exist as normal (though without Jaune to be Ruby's friend of course). So many decisions...**

 **Anyway besides the whole emotional thing that's happening in Jaune's head, the only thing that I think I may as well talk about is of Ozpin and Cinder at the end. Basically...Cinder _isn't_ a bad person...well so far at least. Ozpin still holds the role of Headmaster of Beacon but 'The Guild' exist in this series meaning there needs to be a head to that and who better than Cinder? And as such, with an easier method of being a Hunter, this causes...some changes to happen on a large scale. Ozpin doesn't have a monopoly of Hunters in Vale. **

**Basically Ozpin's side of things has the highest number of A and B rank Hunters among his ranks. In comparison Cinder has the most F-D rank Hunters in her own pocket. The C rank Hunters are split a bit evenly between the two considering that Beacon tends to accept only those C rank and higher or at least have the potential to go higher. Therefore, in a way the power play between the two is along the line of Quality against Quantity and how they base everything reflects it.**

 **Ozpin controls the capital where his Hunters make it a powerhouse of a location to consider attacking. Meanwhile Cinder's influence is basically everywhere else that is basically the outskirts of Vale. A bit even when you consider the amount of Hunters Cinder operates with compared to Ozpin's own sheer power with each Hunter being several lieges more powerful than Cinder's average.**

 **And as for the last part...well _that_ will be addressed in a couple of Arcs.**

 **Also note that previous chapters have been edited so Ursas - Ursai because that's apparently the proper spelling.**

 **On a completely unrelated note, here are so stats:**

 **Jaune Stats (E rank) [Before]:**

 **Power:** 24/50

 **Speed:** 35/50

 **Dexterity:** 22/50

 **Perception:** 26/50

 **Reaction Speed:** 25/50

 **Endurance:** 30/50

 **Stamina:** 33/50

 **Aura:** 203/50

.

 **Jaune Stats (D rank) [After]:**

 **Power:** 26/100

 **Speed:** 38/100

 **Dexterity:** 23/100

 **Perception:** 27/100

 **Reaction Speed:** 27/100

 **Endurance:** 35/100

 **Stamina:** 36/100

 **Aura:** 208/100

.

 **Pyrrha Stats (C rank):**

 **Power:** 128/250

 **Speed:** 153/250

 **Dexterity:** 175/250

 **Perception:** 114/250

 **Reaction Speed:** 155/250

 **Endurance:** 180/250

 **Stamina:** 203/250

 **Aura:** 245/250


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: I own nothing of RWBY which belongs to Rooster Teeth and the late Monty Owm.**

* * *

 **Chapter 8**

 **A Signal in Sight**

"Side-step! Block! Counter attack!"

The Beast of the Abyss roared as the blade of Knight-1 pierced its black flesh before a burst of Aura from said Aura Soldier destroyed its body instantly. Despite killing the Boarbatusk, Jaune wasn't surprise nor careless in his victory as he rolled out of the way of another Boarbatusk's special rolling attack.

"Wow! That was close."

And from the looks of this Grimm, it was a Boarbatusk Major which while not necessarily that dangerous to him or most Hunters at any rate, required caution else your armour and later body would be shredded to pieces within seconds. Waving his own weapon, the blonde Huntsman managed to attack the belly of the Grimm before activating his own Aura-

"TAKE THIS!"

-and disintegrated it in a single shot as well.

He never knew how powerful Aura Burst could be when used more offensively, especially when combined with a complete Aura Construct like Knight-1 who's body could literally cause a body wide area attack against Grimm close enough. Though to be fair, extensive use of said skill by proxy via his Aura Soldiers destabilise them when used too many times in a row.

Sheathing his weapon but keeping his shield on arm, Jaune Arc sighed a bit in content to what his life had become in recent times. Despite how sometimes his stomach sunk down to certain memories, he had to admit that his quality of life was a lot better compared to what it usually was before he met Pyrrha. 2 years as a failure of a Huntsman and a following 3 and soon to be 4 months of being a rising Hunter.

Now, he was strong enough to convince that he could take care of himself on missions involving Grimm subjugations which were missions that he never managed to complete on his own before. Checking the progress he made on his mission, he couldn't help but to smile and grin to it.

 **[Total Slain Grimm: 12]**

Even though they were mostly Boarbatusks and the weaker Beowolves, it was something that he couldn't do before. Seeing this meant one thing to Jaune and that was progress. Progress to achieving his dreams one step at a time. And when he was strong enough…

"I should head back now" he noted at how the sun was setting a lot quicker than he expected. Or did he spend more time hunting down Grimm than usual? Shrugging at both, he started walking back while ever on guard.

He wasn't so foolish to believe the mission ended when before he came back safe to his partner and team.

-o-

"J-aune~! You're back, alive and completely not maimed!" Lavender waved as he came close to where the rest of his team was eating. He rolled his eyes at the comment of being not maimed but otherwise just smiled at the strange girl's antics. He sat at the table while taking some remaining bread that was once dinner.

"Of course I wasn't. I chose one of the easier missions because I knew that Pyrrha would be too worried if I didn't without her keeping me directly in her sight" he snickered.

"HEY!"

"He does have a point. His skill-set and semblance allows him a high level of survivability as long as he knows how to get back to town" Hazel commented.

"I'm not that bad at directions!" he shouted while his partner glared at the rather unaffected Huntsman. The only thing he had to do to cause Jaune to back down was raise his eyebrow.

Jaune didn't even need to know that Hazel knew quite a bit of stories about him getting lost during his more novice days as a Hunter when he had more expectations of 'living the dream' as many called it. His eye twitched to the blatant threat.

Well two could play at that game, "You know Hazel…I heard a lot of rumours about you. Is it true that you once managed to-"

Hazel slapped his hands over Jaune's mouth causing the rest of the words of challenge to be mumbled into something that no one could hope to decipher. Something he found out by accident. Lavender took a challenge like a fish to a waterfall. Namely, naturally and very badly for everyone nearby.

A few seconds later when Hazel was sure Jaune wasn't going to give _ideas_ to Lavender, Pyrrha tapped on his shoulder with a nervous twitch in her fingers before asking, "How was the mission?"

"Pretty good!" Jaune smiled, "I got to play around with some of the applications of Aura Burst and I found out that my Aura Soldiers can use the skills a few times before self-destructing."

Pausing he added, "Also, on a completely _unrelated_ note, I found out a method to make my Aura Soldiers explode like suicide bombers on Grimm."

Lavender giggled to that but Pyrrha had a stern frown. Jaune knew immediately he said something wrong.

"Jaune…please don't refer to your Aura Soldiers as _suicide bombers_ …ever. Too much connotation with the White Fang recently with some of their radicals" she advised.

He flinched.

"Yeah…sorry about that" he muttered while nervously rubbing the back of his head. It was times like this that Jaune remembered that he was _bad_ at most social stuff whenever he doesn't spend a lot of time making sure _not_ to say something bad.

"Anyway I'm starting to get used to being a D ranker" he said, starting the conversation again.

"Oh? Are you saying that we need to up your training as a proper D rank Huntsman?" she smirked as Jaune paled white and then purple and then white again.

The truth was, he actually was around D rank in terms of pure stats. While not exceptional to those reaching towards C rank at any rate, his stats were enough to get him promoted now if he hadn't back then when that Guild Official talked to them. Though it didn't help his ego that Pyrrha was a C rank Huntress reaching for B rank and the other two mid-way to C rank at any rate.

Truth was, even with Pyrrha insanely hell-like training that he refused to think about, he was barely keeping up with everyone else. And that grated him. Grated him _really badly_ because he should be better than he was right now. Internally sighing, he drove down the emotions considering it was only his fault that he was so far behind.

"Hopefully my body can take it" he wistfully said.

"Well your Endurance and Stamina stats are a bit on the low side for a D rank Huntsman so we should continue working on that" she said while probably thinking up new methods to train him, "Depending on how hard you want to work of course!"

Pyrrha let out a brilliant smile to him. Normally in any other case he would blush at the sight – because really, he could barely be considered a young adult – but Jaune unfortunately saw the promise of pain under good intentions. Sometimes ignorance was indeed useful.

Cautiously he took a peek at the expressions of Hazel and Lavender and found that they weren't paying attention. If he had to suffer, he might as well get other people as pawns to distract Pyrrha in those moments he needed to catch his breath.

"Perhaps we should be working more on my Speed?" he asked, "No point in any other training if I can't dodge for my life."

"Sure! We can work more on your dodging still!" Lavender cheered.

He got cold sweat from that.

"Never mind!" he said rapidly while looking at his stats, "I think I need to improve my Dexterity the most considering its my lowest stat."

Wordlessly Hazel – the traitor – pulled out a couple of sharp knives and gave them to Jaune, "Here. There's an old game that the kids back at home played with to increase our skills with knives…well it also teaches you to work your hardest no matter what else you'll lose fingers."

"Sorry but didn't that practise get banned?" his partner thankfully asked.

"Eeeh?" the Huntsman monotony attempted to look surprise before taking a more casual look and tone of voice, "Actually I think the Schnee Family managed to invest in a company that heavily invested in equipment that reattach limbs. It made them a fortune with Hunters everywhere though there were some people who complained about the prices."

"Yep! _Strangely_ enough, the people who made the company the Schnee _invested_ in was completely wiped out by a ' _White Fang_ ' attack leaving the Schnee Company the only people who know how to make this technology" Lavender started adding to the conversation causing he and Pyrrha to start to tune it out.

But it was rude to outright ignore her.

"I would think the Guild and the Academies would complain to that" he commented.

"Naturally they did. After the head of the Schnee refused to lower his profits, Ozpin _suggested_ for his youngest daughter to go to Beacon…after the Guild Branch in Atlas completely vacated that Kingdom."

"Isn't Atlas almost completely military?" Hazel wondered while chewing on some of his food.

"Yes but the Guild itself consist of around half of the total fighting force of Hunters" Pyrrha elaborated, "With the resources they have, even the Schnee family will be pressured especially when most of their profits come from Dust mining and selling it to Hunters all over Remnant."

"Good quality dust is apparently hard to get but the Schnee aren't the only source, just the ones with the most quantity" Jaune started to take his armour off, "But I'm more interested in how Ozpin managed to get the youngest Schnee into Beacon without making it come as a threat."

"Probably blackmail" Hazel shrugged as the blonde paused in his armour stripping.

 _"Strange how many of the rivals and enemies of the Schnee Company were wiped out by the White Fang…just like the other heirs to the family_ " Lavender continued whispering in that awfully strange voice that made her seem crazy.

…Well _crazier_ that is.

"Oookay" he mumbled, "Getting away from the conversation that either gets the Schnee trying to kill us or blacklisted from their numerous and useful technology, I'm going to say here that we should really head to Signal right now."

Looking at all three of the Hunters next to him he said, "There's really no point in stalling to go to essentially a training institution to train on our own."

Pinching his nose he added, "And we're literally a day's walk to the place where we can catch a ship there as well. _Why_ are we not going there and instead staying here for a week?"

Jaune watched his team stay silent to that before Lavender raised her hand.

"Yes?"

"I think we were waiting for you to tell us to go there" she admitted.

"What?" his eyes took a dangerous look.

"One of the roles of the leader of a team is to provide direction to his team. Basically, we didn't go to Signal from here since a week ago _because_ you didn't tell us that you wanted to go there" explained Pyrrha.

If Jaune was pinching his nose any harder, he might've broken it. Good news that he didn't and it helped in reducing the sheer amount of stress, annoyance and particularly rage that appeared all of a sudden.

"You're tell me-" his face twitched, "-That we could've ended this journey a week ago if I just _asked_?!"

"Yes" replied Hazel bluntly.

That really didn't help. At all. He wasn't suffering more of Pyrrha's hell training when there was a reasonable and proper teaching centre cost enough that he could use. That and he could finally get Lavender out of his hair. Hazel was fine to work with but Lavender…

Yes, getting to Signal now was a good thing for his health.

-o-

The coastal town that they had eventually ended up in was surprisingly full of people. Despite not being on the same level as a city like the capital, the amount of people that was coming in and out of the place might as well make it one in a small manner. Not to mention all of those ships docked, the coastal town looked even fuller.

"There are a _lot_ of people _everywhere_ " he commented, partly in awe at the sight of so many people. Even in the town he grew up in, he never seen so many people at once.

He and the rest of his team or party were on the side of the walkway near the main street of the town. No, such a place with so many people couldn't simply be called town anymore but rather a city. And the most impressive thing was that apparently Vale supposedly had even more people.

"I believe people nicknamed this city the ' _Coast'_ because it is the largest shipping docks in Remnant" Pyrrha added helpfully, "Although it only has a true population of a few thousands, the actual number of people that stay in this city temporary doubles or triple that numbers depending on the time of day."

"Plus the market is fill with lots of food from _everywhere_ " Lavender cheerfully stated as well.

Jaune glanced at the seeming hyperactive girl but got no answer after a few seconds causing Hazel to cough and answer for her, "Due to the Coast being the shipping hub of the world, it isn't strange that at the same time, it also holds a large number of cultures together though still primarily Vale."

"Really? I wonder if there are a couple of things I could try later…" he mused. He hadn't eaten a lot of different types of foods before. It was more or less the staple food of bread, dairy and occasionally meat that he lived off for so long. And as such, in a way he considered eating a lot of different types of foods out there something he should do as a Huntsman.

"I believe we can do so after we finish our business in Signal" said Hazel.

"Are that many ships going to and from Patch?" Jaune asked with a bit of concern in his tone. He didn't want to be stuck on an island for a week if it turned out his business concluded in a single day.

Hazel nodded his head in reply, "I believe so. One of the main businesses of this city is in fact that it is the closest to the island and therefore along with small academy that takes both full time and part time students in resulted in a large shipping industry just for that."

Looking closer to the docks, he spotted a variety of ships and even small boats coming to and from where he suspected Patch was. Some of them looked downright uncomfortable while others looked closer to a world-wide cruise ship along with all the luxuries you would expect on one.

"How much does a trip cost?" wondered Pyrrha.

Although slightly surprised that someone as prepared as Pyrrha didn't know such a thing, Jaune didn't find it abnormal simply because she wasn't a native to Vale. Pricing in each of the Four Kingdoms were a bit different to account of many economic, environmental and political factors.

"I say around 100 Lien for the cheapest ride judging by the small boats that are far too small for safe long travel" Jaune deduced, "And maybe at most 10 000 Lien for the largest one…though that really depends on how luxurious you want a single hour ride to be and it may scale a lot higher. I _think_ there are air-travel options but I'm not sure on the pricing on that."

"That seems like a waste of money…" the red-head muttered.

Lavender seemed to glomp on that exclaiming, "Pyrrha! Never underestimate the rich! They will _throw_ money around just to make people move an arch for them to walk through. And an hour is plenty of time for the rick folks to hire some _entertain_ -"

Fortunately for the pair of Hunters, Hazel once more managed to put a lid on the violet-hair Huntress's mouth with his hand. One of the things that Jaune quickly learnt about Lavender was that she was not only quirky in many ways but in some ways… _bat-shit insane_ in her logic.

Reality and life wasn't some sort of story…or game…or a reality T.V show no matter how much she ranted on it at times.

"Lavender! What have I told you about _certain_ things you shouldn't say" he chided as said Huntress pouted like a child in a way.

" _Sor-ry_!" she replied with a small cheer.

Over a month with this kind of person, Jaune could only rub his forehead to attempt to send away the headaches that might happen if she got _bored_ once more. He was not looking forward to any attempts from her to improve his dodging skills by tying his legs with rope and forcing him to dodge her attacks from there on.

Sure it rapidly increased his Reaction Speed and Perception stats according to his A.U.R.A but still, he didn't want to go through that again. He already had Pyrrha doing those kinds of things, he didn't need his _other_ team-mates adding to that especially when the stress from his partner's training them on could be taken out on him,

"Anyway, do you guys want to explore the city, get some food or find a place to sleep at before we head to Signal or should we head there now?" he asked everyone.

" _Foood~!_ "

Pyrrha smiled as she added, "I am a bit peckish."

"Might as well go with everyone else" sighed Hazel with shoulders slumped. He could only console the Huntsman with a pat on the shoulder and a pity smile. _Everyone_ knew how much Lavender ate next to how…outlandish her choices of food were.

While snakes and plant soup was fine in Jaune's opinion, he drew the line against eating insects.

Still, he rather have the partly insane Huntress on his side and therefore usually went along with what she choose to eat. Most of the time that is. There was no shame in backing out of a meal when it looked like something even Grimm would avoid eating.

Frankly, he could admit that one of the reasons why he tolerated her was due to her skills and choice of weaponry. How she managed to combine the rather static and slow art of sniping with the up-close and brutal methods of axe fighting was beyond him. The fact that she _managed_ to combine two extremely different fighting styles into one explained much for how her mind worked.

She seemed to have taken certain conventional beliefs and thrown them out of the window. She used a sniper but didn't really specialise much in long-range attacks and instead used that form of her weaponry for more mid-range impact attacks. She used dual axes for close range but instead of using them as a primary method of attack, they only supported her until she switch to her sniper and shoot from there.

It was really strange how Lavender Lotus thought and how effective she could be.

On the flip side, Hazel seemed to be the opposite of Lavender's insanity with his logic which sometimes wasn't a good thing. While the most of the time, Hazel would rein in some of Lavender's…more _creative_ suggestions, there were times when he agreed with her. Although those times resulted in some interestingly effect outcomes, his sanity suffered in response and that was saying something when most of his plans were generally insane to others.

But at the same time, Jaune could see how Hazel functioned in the way he fought. Frankly, it reminded him of a less complicated version of how Pyrrha fought. It was straightforward, no tricks and pure skill and power over everything else with a capable mind to bring it all together. In comparison to how said Huntsman's partner fought, Hazel fought more aligned to how most Hunters were expected to fight.

Specialised, though with a small number of other options if that failed and in Hazel's case, his great-sword and close combat were his specialises while those dual guns of his were a back-up.

 _"What should we eat? Can we go to the place where I saw an old man made berry meat sticks? What about the intestine soup place?"_ she rapidly chattered to Hazel's ear as they walked.

They drew some attention from those nearby but he was used to ignoring the stares namely thank to Pyrrha distracting him with trivia and some questions to refresh his knowledge of this city he was in from time to time.

"Hey! This place looks _really_ nice to eat in!"

Turning to look at what caught Lavender's eyes, Jaune resisted the urge to blanch at the choice the Huntress seemed to have. Old, dirty and run-down were the choice of words that he would give to the…establishment that he was sure was a stall of some sort.

No, it was more like it was a street-stall than anything resembling a restaurant that was shattered around the coastal city. He wasn't sure that he wanted to go near such a place considering the quality _looked_ a lot worse than even the other food-stalls next to this one.

Plus it didn't help that this particular food-stall was completely empty while every single one nearby were full with short lines in some particular popular ones.

"Welcome!" a 'relatively' dirty old man greeted as the violet haired Huntress dragged Hazel to sit down before pulling him and Pyrrha in as well.

"Lavender…" he asked making sure not to touch what seemed to be dirty oil on the bench, "Are you sure you want to eat here? There's a whole bunch of other places that are take-and-eat rather and we can get a lot more different food then here."

"Now now" his partner said with a 'smile', "Surely there is a good reason why Lavender brought us here…and it isn't polite to just leave right now."

He shot a look of disbelief to the red-head while his mouth was gaping. She wanted to eat here?! Looking more closely, no, she did not want to eat here thankfully but there seemed to be a strange reason why she seemed so…submissive to the ideas and wills of others.

Sighing, especially considering that Hazel dealt with Lavender by enduring whatever happened, he simply gave up on getting out of this. At least if things goes wrong, he had someone to blame and force more training from Pyrrha to.

"Fine" he said, "What's on the menu?"

" _Pig leg soup, Pig heart soup, Pig intestine soup, Pig head soup_ " the owner said in a raspy and distorted tone like he rare spoke.

Still, that didn't stop his eyebrows from flying up into his hairline while Pyrrha went a bit pale while still trying to smile and look polite for the heck of it.

"I…see."

He gulped not sure on whether or not staying here was worth it. It didn't help that there was a sudden crowd that seemed extremely interested in what they were doing eating here nearby. Running away was not exactly an option seeing a couple people a bit further away was placing bets on them.

That and some of the people there were extremely buff. Not the type of people he wanted to face against.

 _God damn it_.

"Pyrrha…which one seems like the one that has the least amount of chance of giving us all food poisoning?" he asked as the old owner of the stall, with bad business he imagined, hummed while firing up the old pots.

"Sorry…" she looked away.

Thankfully, it seemed like his ingredients were fresh enough as one of the owners to the side of this one commented that there were a couple of people who donated their leftover meats from time to time in order to make sure no one died of food poisoning.

That didn't help considering it _looked_ as if it was poison.

In all four different pots, they were all the same dark murky colour and all of them sent out the same smell which was bad to say anything positive about them. Jaune couldn't help but to glare at Lavender as the girl quickly ordered for all of them.

"Four servings of _Pig Intestine Soup!_ " she too happily said.

He considered strangling her.

" _Roger_!"

The man moved even quicker while chopping up some things that were blurred black to his eyes while dropping more and more content into the soup pot. Jaune paled a bit from the smell and didn't move in order to not vomit. Everyone else seemed to be in a similar state except for Lavender while was being restrained from taking a closer look by her own partner.

Sometimes he pitied Hazel.

Of course, that disappeared when he remember that it was _his_ suggestion to expose him to too much of Lavender and her own brand of insanity. The worse part was that his own insanity, limited to only his plans in a battle, and hers seemed to click _too_ well making things a mess while making any kind of report seem more like the storied rambling of a child than an actual Hunter.

" _Four Pig Intestine Soups!_ "

Those words shocked you out of your thoughts. Although you didn't completely see the process of cooking, from the look of things, the owner boiled a lot of the stuff in water for a few minutes before taking them out and draining the liquid into the bowls that were smoothly in front of you right now.

It didn't look nice.

It didn't smell nice.

Hopefully it tasted nice.

And it was unfortunate that both Hazel and Lavender did not have enough Aura to mitigate the effects of bad food unlike him, and Pyrrha but she was giving him the _puppy eyed_ look that he was surprised to be quite effective on her mature looking face.

"Jaune…" Pyrrha clapped her hands around his, "I'm sorry to say this but I am _proud_ of you."

He deadpanned in return, "I might get food poisoning. I'm your poison taster right now and you're intentionally throwing me under the bus."

" _I am proud of your sacri-_ sorry _determination_ " she repeated.

Jaune grimaced without saying another word and focused slightly on the sensation of her hands. It was a small guilty pleasure and was a bit creepy but he _liked_ the feeling of her hands in a strange way. They weren't as smooth as they could be but they weren't hard like rubber like his mum's was though she had decades more experience as a Huntress.

Resigning himself being the taste-tester, he took the spoon while avoid thinking that it probably wasn't wasted before placing said liquid into his mouth.

A pause.

Another pause.

Yet a third pause as people started mumbling about something.

"This is actually pretty good" Jaune admitted with a fair deal of shock and pleasant surprise.

Taking that was a prompt, Lavender took a sip of her own bowl and quoted Jaune in her words which lead to Pyrrha agreeing to eat as well before Hazel finally tasted the broth and widened his eyes in surprise to the taste.

"You know…" you started to say, "This could probably work as a noodle stall for those who like the…stink."

And as such, in the next couple of minutes, a lot of words were thrown around as Jaune and his team quickly finished eating. Still, by the time they had all eaten a course of said intestine soup – that was surprisingly good – it seemed that there were a couple of people who wanted to invest in the formerly defunct place.

"Man that was a good meal" Lavender started to say, "Who wants me to choose another place?"

"I'm rather full right now. I'm sorry but I don't think I can eat anymore" said Pyrrha and he mentally thanked her for that. Although he quickly realised that it was better to get a support from as many (i.e Hazel) as possible in order to confirm this.

"Agreed" said Jaune quickly before turning to Hazel and sending him a _glare_ to agree as well.

It took a moment but Hazel eventually said, "Are you sure you want to waste food? Pyrrha and Jaune seemed to be already full from the…meal."

"Of course! Sharing is caring isn't it?"

"…Yes it is. But you have to consider the opinions of other people who don't want to share or be shared with."

Lavender sent a horrified gasp to that revelation, "What are they, _monsters?_ Tell me where I can find them so I can _crush_ them into _paste_."

"No crushing people in paste. That'll get our licenses revoked before we get sent to jail or worse" Hazel sighed, "Of course, I don't think your choice of weapons will be able to crush people but rather chop them into pieces."

"That's kind of morbid, talking so casually about killing people you know" said Jaune.

Sending a deadpan look to the blonde, Hazel retorted, "Try _not_ bringing up the topic of _not killing_ to Lavender for a while. She is my partner and all but it is difficult to direct her to the Grimm enough with just me."

Seeing said Huntress skipping ahead with 'ohh' and 'ahh' as she examined everything interesting in sight, Pyrrha asked, "Does she have problems with concentrating?"

"Yes" Hazel sent a suffering sigh out, "I don't remember the precise name but it has something to do with her brain being unable to allow her to think about _one_ thing for too long before something else distracts her and the cycle begins again."

"Isn't that kind of dangerous in our line of work?" he asked worryingly.

To that, the brown haired Huntsman snorted, "The Guild doesn't care at all as long as she's killing Grimm and not any humans. She's surprisingly talented in long-range shooting but can't concentrate long enough to specialise in it-"

"-And at the same time is good enough to bypass this handicap by using _axes_ of all things?" his eyebrows were quite raised already and this revelation of why Lavender despite using a snipe based weapon wasn't exactly the long-range type.

Pyrrha mused on that, "I'm wondering what was on her mind to choose such as short range type of weapon compared to a spear or even a sword."

"Eh. She wanted to 'combine' two weapons into a larger one that was her sniper. So really it was a matter of what kind of weapon was easiest to dual wield without me worrying about her chopping off her arms when I'm not looking. Axes while sharp are surprisingly non-lethal on your arms when you make a mistake" he shrugged, "And with the quality of metal we were using back then, there was less chance of Lavender losing fingers with the axes than with swords."

"That makes too much sense that it's a bit sad that you missed another option that would've served Lavender quite well and keep her a lot safer than transitioning from a long-range weapon to an extremely close range one."

"Huh. Why so Jaune? And more importantly, _what_?" Hazel asked bewildered.

" _Whips_ " said Jaune, "Mid-range and quite useless in close-range unless you're an expert with it but considering the technology to make common weapons into death machines of slaughter, I can bet you that _someone_ would've made each connection portion of the whip to be a gun somehow."

"That wouldn't work unfortunately" said Hazel, "It seems you are _underestimating_ how bad her Dexterity really is. It's worse than _yours_ unless it's related to shooting to which, she is really good otherwise."

"Oi."

"What? We all found out that you quite suck at coordinated precise attacks and the only reason _Lavender_ is better than you at that is because she can power through any problems with her wild strikes" he commented.

"Really…" Jaune glared.

"Actually" Pyrrha spoke up, "Can I use your idea for a new weapon I'm considering getting forged?"

"What's wrong with your current ones?" Jaune asked while inspecting her weapons as best he could. Which really meant, he was looking but wasn't sure if there was anything wrong with them or not.

"They were designed against other Hunters, or rather other _people_ than Grimm. Sure they are pretty effective as weapons themselves thanks to my experience with them but they aren't actually designed to face against Grimm and it shows in my failures" she stated.

Jaune paused hearing that and said, "You got more kills than any of us during that invasion."

"I was killing as fast as I could but still, too many Grimm got pass me and that resulted in so many more deaths."

"You're the strongest Huntress I know my age and most of _those_ deaths were due to that White King Taijitu. _Everyone_ failed then."

"I still could be stronger and there are plenty with people who are stronger than me my age or even younger. It's just that you haven't met them yet."

Remembering an article from a while back he realised what she was talking about and who she seemed to be comparing herself to for some odd reason, "You're talking about that young team leader in Beacon that all the rumours are about recently."

"Ruby Rose. Age 15 and leader of Team RWBY. Known conflict against the White Fang last I heard" Hazel added.

Turning his eyes towards Hazels and back at Pyrrha, Jaune stopped questioning her for a moment before saying, "Why do you seem to want to put yourself down so much?"

"Why are you questioning on getting a new weapon?" she retorted.

"I actually didn't protest you getting a new weapon. Rather I agree with you on that point and we can talk about it later" he said in return, "But I am questioning on why you seem to think that what happened at the town back then was your fault."

"…."

Jaune pinched his nose before muttering out, "Please don't tell me that this is one of those 'I was the strongest there so it's my responsibility' thing? I mean, I _read_ about those in my X-ray comics…"

"NO! It's nothing like _that_ " she protested.

But he wasn't seeing it that way at all. That or her issues seemed to be stem in other things that he needed to look into. He was the team leader and he knew that it was partly his responsibility to take care of his team.

-Even if all of them were stronger than him in some way.

"Right" he deadpanned before remembering that such a conversation should be done in private at least. Looking around, there were a couple of curious gazes and bit of pointing towards Pyrrha which meant more people would probably find them sooner than later.

That was a bad thing naturally.

The media and paparazzi were a nightmare to Hunters because they make any kind of investigations impossible for those who stand out, and Hunters do stand out, a _lot_. Hunters were pretty much the only ones who wore overly flashy clothes and outfits as well as carry around their weapons _openly_ that were usually highly complex and large.

"Hazel."

Taking a glance at Hazel, the Huntsman nodded and started to chase after Lavender before he took Pyrrha's hand and started heading towards one of the cheaper Inns before getting them both a room to talk in somewhat private.

After closing the door, he turned around to look at his partner in the eye, " _Right_. Now we can talk about all your issues since a month ago because while I _like_ you, there are some things about you that I don't."

Annnd and Pyrrha looked heartbroken at that sentence. _Damn_. She makes it easy for him to hate himself. Lucky this wasn't done in public else he bet there would be a lynching for his blood right now. Hell, _he_ wanted a lynching and he was target!

" _Pyrrha_ " he gasped her shoulders, "Frankly I think you are a _wonderful_ person. A kind, patient and a real life _saint_ for putting up with me and even training me this far-"

She started to look a lot better.

"-But at the same time, you are _submissive_ far too much. Thankfully not to the point that any guy could get their way with you-"

She blushed angrily to that.

"-Hey! Don't think I didn't see you casually break that guy's arm when you thought I wasn't looking when he was bothering you too much. Anyway, you also have this strange habit of apologising a bit too much but it isn't a problem yet-"

" _I don't have a problem with apologising!_ "

"- _Pyrrha!"_

"Sorry!"

"Case close there" he smirked while bathing in her glare.

"Anyway" Jaune continued to say, "You are a _person_ Pyrrha and you can share your problems with me. I _know_ you've been moping around a lot more ever since the town got mostly destroyed and you never opened up with me about it."

"I think both of us know what I was feeling then. It was horrible and I admit that it was the first time I was there during the…destruction but after a while I felt a bit better about it."

"Pyrrha…"

"And I was a bit more worried about _you_ after that than me. Nightmares are easy to spot you know" she quickly said while seeing the small bit of ' _fear'_ in his eyes to that knowledge.

"I…don't think we should be focusing on me right now rather than you. There much more important issues…" he trailed off.

"You mean like your nightmares Jaune?" she questioned. There was a strange glint in her eyes and she grabbed his wrist with an almost crushing grip when he started to retreat to the door.

"That's…a completely different matter. We're talking about _you_ right now. While you're mentally and emotionally safe for most of the time, I fear when you're not" he avoided her eyes.

"No" she denied, forcing him to look at her head on, "I think this is the perfect time to talk about _you_ instead Jaune. While I have been training your body so you get stronger, it seems like I neglected your emotions instead over the last month. It has been a _month_ Jaune. And I don't think I ever saw you let out any emotions to the event after we left."

"You mean you want to have a heart to heart talk with me" he tried to rip his hand away but her grip was too strong.

She nodded, "Yes. It has been a while since we had one. There wasn't much time between upping the intensity of your training, letting you recover and dealing with other two."

"You sound like you don't approve of them."

"They are nice. But they are connected more to each other than you and to you than to me. While good training tools for you, I haven't really connected to them in any meaningful manner and I bet it's the same to them" she said.

"Why haven't you told me of this? I could've talked to them" he frowned.

"There's really little point" she admitted, "Most Hunters that end up as partner are _always_ closer together than any other team-mates they pick up. Unless there are circumstances like the Academies that force you into teams of 4, most don't bother getting too close but close enough to ask for favours now and then."

"And can you admit that you are as close to those two as to me?" she raised her eyebrow.

"…No" Jaune conceded, "But what does this have to do with me. I think it's more about _you_."

She waggled her finger at him which was surprising, "Ah ah no. Sorry but you're not changing the topic away from _your_ issues which are far worse than mine. _I_ might have the 'misplaced' guilt but _you're_ the one who lived in that town for 2 years. Ever since the start of your Hunter career to boot. I doubt you _haven't_ made an emotional connection to that town and people tend to hurt when people they care about _die_."

"…."

Jaune scowled at the words but didn't refute it.

"Jaune" she said slowly, massaging his palm, "What's done is done. We cannot dwell on what ifs and maybes forever. _Moving on_ is something all Hunters eventually learn to do. Winning forever is impossible and losing is more common than you expect."

"The fault you bare that day is the same as mine and the same as all Hunters who were there" she hugged him, "We weren't strong enough to save everyone. And we don't always need to be strong save someone."

Jaune let out a strangled laugh with tears starting to leak out.

"That's a bit contradicting isn't it?"

For another hour, Pyrrha held him as she whispered assurance in his ear while he finally cried for lost friendships and innocent lives. A part of him felt that everything was going to be all right with his partner and yet the desire for more power was still there.

-o-

It was later when Jaune decided that the team should stay the night before heading to Signal. The reason? It was the costs associated with guests staying over when they weren't fully registered to be considered even partially connected to the training institute.

And the best part was that it took only a bit of convincing.

"I think we should stay the night at an inn" he said. Naturally this was only after taking to the innkeeper and bargaining with the price of the room to fit four people instead of four different rooms that would've been a waste of space and money to them.

Living together in the wood does have some benefits to ignoring whatever signs of undress around you.

"Why?" Lavender asked.

Hazel replied to that, "I don't think Signal will have many cheap options for staying the night and even more so to accepting new applicants to their school. I think it's one of their sources of income other than student tuition fees."

"Are the other Academies like this?" Jaune turned to Pyrrha.

She shook her head, "The four main Academies don't I think considering each Kingdom sponsors and pays the costs of each student studying and learning from them though they take whatever costs back in service years even if they're also paying them for that."

"So basically any other Academies can because they actually need to pay the costs or want to make a profit."

"Mostly I suppose" she shrugged, "Signal is well-known for being a prep-school for Beacon but also a good place for any Hunters below B rank to sharpen their skills and learn more about the trade and not to mention good quality equipment."

Jaune considered that before asking her, "Is there a Guild branch on the island as well?"

"No, Signal falls under the control of Beacon and therefore the Four Kingdom Academies."

"And they don't care if those from the Guild use their resources?" he raised an eyebrow. From what he could tell, the Academy (And later Kingdom) Hunters and the Guild Hunters were the two main factions when it came to Hunters.

Jaune wasn't sure what the difference was besides one had generally more training while the other had more field experience than the other. That and he knew the former was much harder to be than the latter which was almost too easy.

"We're all Hunters and everyone wants more Hunters and better yet, better equipped Hunters as long as someone pays the costs" Hazel answered, "In this case, _we're_ the one paying for their services while if we were to enrol to that place, the Kingdom will be mostly paying the costs in order to keep those who get these services for free under their thumbs."

"Yep yep. It's a choice of being free and paying for your own stuff or being a tool and being sheltered with _love_ " added Lavender, "Sometimes being free is the way to go but you have a better chance of living being trapped in a disaster."

Jaune mentally deciphered what she just said while staring at her questionably, "I…suppose joining one of the Academies have its benefits. Is there an age limit at all? I mean I know there is a general skill line that you need to meet…"

"There is no actual age limit to getting into Beacon or any of the other Academies" Pyrrha answered, "Generally it takes around 2 years for someone to be skilled enough as a Hunter to get in as a high D rank but it is known that sometimes there are those who come a bit earlier than others."

"The young prodigy Ruby Rose case and point" said Hazel.

"Huh. Anything anyone wants to talk about?" Jaune asked seeing no more venture in the conversation at large, "If there's nothing else to talk about then we might as well stay here for the night."

"Might as well. We can't train inside here without making a scene" said Hazel while taking some very noticeable glances towards Pyrrha with some fear in his eyes.

Jaune shivered in agreement. The worse part about training with Pyrrha after last month wasn't how much stricter and intense the training was (he could deal with that) but rather she seemed to listen and incorporate some of the suggestions of Lavender to their training.

Naturally only Lavender was excited for the changes via her suggestions.

Even _if_ said training was several times more effective than anything he had seen, his mental sanity was on an all-time low as his partner pushed his body to the brink. The fact that he went from a very _weak_ D rank Huntsman with too low stats in all areas except Aura to one that was decent was no consolidate to the suffering.

 **Stats:**

 **Power:** 39/100

 **Speed:** 48/100 (+1%)

 **Dexterity:** 25/100

 **Perception:** 33/100

 **Reaction Speed:** 50/100

 **Endurance:** 45/100

 **Stamina:** 50/100

 **Aura:** 218/100

The stat range for D rank was above 50 points. While most of his stats were still below that level amount to a certain extent, his Speed, Reaction Speed, Endurance and Stamina seemed to be almost or barely at D rank levels mainly due to the _type_ of training he seemed to be getting.

Those stats increased rapidly in particular when you're forced to train while exhausted and beyond exhausted for an entire month…

No, it wasn't just that he was forced to train his body physically but rather also his mind as well though it was more making sure his body reacted as fast as his mind could or in case faster than he could think. It certain didn't help that Pyrrha found out what his increasingly growing Aura reserves meant for his stamina that seemed to increase more and more rapidly the more he trained.

He had never cursed his quick recovery speed so much until then.

But, it was useful in some ways, especially when it came to learning certain skills he had been meaning to for a while. He was really _encouraged_ when the training shifted suddenly from just physical exercise to live combat dodging with an emphasis of _combat_.

"Show skills."

His A.U.R.A system flared up for his eyes only as a list of the skills he had and had refined until now appeared for him.

 **Skills: [-]**

 **[ACTIVE]**

 **Aura Soldier (Mastered): Capable of creating Aura Constructs in the form of humanoid combat units.**

· **Mastery of skill allows for you to deploy multiple weaker Aura Soldiers or singular stronger Aura Soldier. (Can create 1 at double strength, 3 at full strength, 6 at half strength)**

· **Mastery of skill allows you to deploy multiple types Aura Soldiers in battle that you can modify at any time.**

· **Mastery of skill allows you recover half Aura spent on deploying Aura Soldiers when destroyed.**

 **Aura Enhancement (Proficiency: Adept): Capable of using Aura to internally boost the natural physical abilities of the human body.**

· **Adept Proficiency allows for moderate application of increased power and defence in affected areas.**

· **Adept Proficiency allows for moderate coverage of the body as well as the limbs and takes a second for Aura Enhancement to appear.**

· **Adept Proficiency allows a set amount of aura costs in using this skill.**

 **Aura Charge (Proficiency: Adept): Capable of using Aura to externally boost the natural physical abilities of an imbued object.**

· **Adept Proficiency allows for moderate application of increased power and durability in affected object. Bypasses minor restrictions in other aura related skills upon use via overcharge.**

· **Adept Proficiency allows for moderate sync in increasing ability with object instinctively for battle purposes.**

· **Adept Proficiency allows a set amount of aura costs in using this skill.**

 **Aura Burst (Proficiency: Novice): Capable of using Aura to offensively attack targets via bursting out raw Aura.**

· **Novice Proficiency allows for minor application of increased explosive power via expending more Aura.**

· **Novice Proficiency allows for minor amount of area that the effects of Aura Burst can be used.**

· **Novice Proficiency causes double the amount of aura costs in using this skill.**

 **[PASSIVE]**

 **Distance Alteration Evasion (Proficiency: Novice): The Non-Aura variant of pushing the leg muscles to the limits to activate a small burst of speed. This passive skill incorporates the following skills and requires both proficiencies to rise to progress.**

· **Mountain Step Dodge (Proficiency: Novice): The ability of short distance bursts of speed in a matter of single 'steps'. Continuous use causes more strain on leg muscles to drastically increase.**

· **Wasp Evade Movement (Proficiency: Novice): The ability of moderate distance bursts of speed in a matter of several 'steps' being chained in a single direction. Larger distances and continuous uses causes more strain on leg muscles to drastically increase.**

· **Passively +1% Speed. Actively +50% Speed.**

Seeing the last and sole passive skill that he had, Jaune grinned wildly at the effects that he had gained thanks to it.

And offhandedly nodded to the progress he made with both Aura Charge and Aura Enhancement which were now of adept proficiency instead of novice. The amount of work he made for each of the skills was enough to exhaust his Aura several times over during the month trip to Signal.

Of course, the best way to train something always seemed to conclude to risking your life to force you to survive or die.

More than that, contrary to his Aura reserves that matched Pyrrha's own in sheer size, he often had to think about how to conserve any amount of Aura the longer a battle goes by the sheer fact that his Aura Soldier skill was bullshit. Really, it was bullshit. No matter how strong he could get, he realised, as long as he continued to actively using that skill, a good portion of his Aura will _always_ be shaved off whenever he uses one.

At any moment after he deploy an Aura Soldier to the battlefield, he would have to work with a faction of his Aura until it ends. And at this point of his career as a Huntsman, the turnout of the skill being the way it was thanks to his semblance did not outweigh the risks to his life. Jaune knew the effects his semblance seemed to have on the skill and he agreed with Pyrrha that the skill would be immensely powerful when his body was strong enough.

It was unfortunate that the Aura Soldier skill takes up so much of his Aura no matter how much he has. The fact that it does means that he probably needs to obtain more passive skills which means more pain for him to learn a lot more. It was that or progress his training away from using the highly effective skill.

The ability to create three disposable Aura Soldiers the same level as you? Decent in application. Add in the fact that you could create ones _stronger_ than you if you used more Aura? Powerful. And combine in the fact that these Aura Soldiers seemed to have picked up the ability to use Active Skills as well? Overpowered in the right circumstances.

He knew that the skill would literally one day boost him towards the coveted S-rank if _he_ got strong enough.

But he wasn't there yet. Hell, he was struggling being a D-rank Huntsman right now. No matter how hard Pyrrha pushed him, no matter how much experience he got in the short term and no matter how fast he was learning, there was still a 2 year gap where he pretty much learnt nothing.

His body simply wasn't used to high levelled combat yet and it quite reflexed in his stats.

Sure he was fast, could react fast and could last quite a while with a decent amount of power in the body. However his ability to spot the minor things, see through the hidden subtlety and react in the same small ways was quite bad compared to others with 2 years of experience under their belts.

Pyrrha was just _abnormal_ in how well she does do that compared to their age peers.

He on the other hand was neither skilled enough to dodge every attack major or not nor had _that_ amount of Aura to ignore damage to himself even if he could only use a faction of it. In many cases, there were a number of times when he feared that all that was between him and death was his semblance.

That was not a reassuring thought.

Nor was how he didn't know _how_ his semblance seemed to work. It was energy-aura based naturally and it had to do with transferring it around along with kinetic energy on impact from what Pyrrha explained to him. But the limits? No idea. The range? No idea until he somehow manages to protect another person with it.

The lack of information on his semblance was one of the reasons why he agreed to go to Signal. Unlike in most Guild Branches shattered around Vale, Academies had a much wider field of information when it came to anything Aura and therefore Semblance related.

He could've ask his family but from what he could tell; _their_ semblances were much simpler to understand than his. Or, it's just that they haven't been put in as frustrating situation as him when trying to figure it out.

Of course, repeatedly thinking about such things like his stats, skills and semblance was quite useless unless he had something to change them for the better. Right now, all he had to do was focus on getting stronger, getting better equipment and possibly understand more about his semblance than before.

Either way, he needed sleep. He was going to Signal tomorrow.

* * *

 **A/N: Well this chapter was part frustrating and part tedious to write and I may have repeated from stuff from earlier chapter(s) without realising it. Actually (starts skimming the chapter) I think I actually repeated a couple of things and I'm not sure if I should delete it or edit it to the point that it's different.**  
 **Please endure it because it would take hours to re-edit the entire chapter to change that without disrupting the flow.**

 **Couple of things to consider in this chapter. This is the prologue of an Arc which means that the start of this chapter was intentionally similar to the first chapter. Second is that timeframe wise, this is roughly slightly after RWBY faced the White Fang at the end of Volume 1 though there are naturally differences because Cinder is (probably) not behind everything. Yeah, try not to think of this series as anything near Canon because that gives me a headache when I do.**

 **Another thing is that this chapter originally spanned into Signal which was later cut out and made into the next chapter. Part of me very much felt like ending this chapter with Jaune and co ended up on Signal (Academy which Ruby/Yang went to) and being welcomed in but I felt it would be just extending what would be covered in the next chapter anyway. If it could be considered a 'spoiler', the next chapter will be showing off how much Jaune had changed in terms of fighting ability and boy that was hard to write without making the entire fight artificial.  
**

 **There are a couple of other points I rather talk about here like Jaune's emotional moment. I'll put it out here. I _suck_ at emotional moments. Example is with one of the earlier chapters where Jaune broke down for reasons...which was a bit _too_ early for that now that I think about it. It felt forced and so on and hopefully the scene in this chapter wasn't too forced. The background here is that Jaune had been holding it all in for a month when the place he lived in for the last 2 years was destroyed while he failed to protect it. Though now that I think about it, I should really put that in the chapter...wait a sec.  
**

 **...Done.**

 **Besides that, I'm hoping that I'm getting Pyrrha's character down. Due to the series AU background, there will probably be _some_ changes but as a character, Pyrrha shouldn't be a complete AU version of herself. Part of me feels like Pyrrha is...designated as the mentor/teacher role that will eventually get killed off for Jaune's own progress...which is bad. **

**Also now that I think about it, Volume 3 Pyrrha was kind of stupid. Despite seeing how hiding something important from the team was bad (case Jaune), she did so anyway causing emotional tension and instability as well as a lot of stress. And then she decided to fight against Fall Maiden Cinder...who _killed_ Ozpin as far as anyone knew and not only that, did so _without_ back-up of any kind instead of running away or just getting back-up. No matter how humble she seemed to be or wanted to be, she was just as prideful as Jaune in a bad way and unlike Jaune, this actually killed her. **

**Well hopefully I can write my version of Pyrrha to survive whatever her actions may lead to.**

 **And ending on a much lighter note, the next chapter is already half-written so it shouldn't take more than a week to complete.**

 **P.S: Also with this chapter I hit 100K, Whoot!**


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer: I own nothing of RWBY which belongs to Rooster Teeth and the late Monty Owm.**

* * *

 **Chapter 9**

 **A Signal to Enter**

It was a well-known factor – to those who met Jaune on a moving vehicle – that he suffers from motion sickness. This is rare on Remnant as Aura usually negated such symptoms and many other illnesses that others without Aura common suffer from. The fact that said blonde's aura levels are extremely high for his age and is active make it pretty clear that fate just really hates him.

However not many known the specific of his motion sickness in detail.

In order of intensity, air travel was the worse for Jaune. He didn't know why but his motion sickness is at worst when it came to air travel to the point that his stomach curbs a bit even at the thought of travelling through the air from all the related traumas to his memories. After that, sea travel was while uncomfortable was durable for the most part except when his stomach had too much food or water in it.

Finally there was land travel…which was a curious thing for him. Travel in cars was almost as bad as air travel but for some reason riding on motorbikes was perfectly fine unless the rider decided to jump loops. But in a surprising twist, horse travel was something he _excelled_ in for reasons no one figured out yet.

But all of this was unrelated to what was happening to him right now.

"Welcome to Signal. Premier Source of Hunters and Training" said the mechanical voice as they passed through the gates.

A curious thing to note was that there were no gatekeepers to Signal though that was understandable considering the place was on an island so people were vetted for most dangerous things before they even stepped foot on the place. The longest part of the trip wasn't the actual travel but waiting in line for _everyone's_ stuff being examined for any dangers to what is acceptable to bring to Signal.

And for Hunters who _literally_ carried combat dust to use in battle, what was dangerous or not was pretty subjective. From what he heard from another person complaining nearby, the 'search' was really just a formality that the Vale Council complained about when someone brought a bomb big enough to wipe the island of Patch off the maps that one time.

Really, it was a bit surprising how lax security was though he doubted that anyone was stupid enough to attack a place filled with too many Hunters. But right now, all of that was blank on his mind as he took in the sights.

Rather than being a mere Academy or Island, it was like a whole town or even _city_.

"This place…is a lot bigger than I expected when they said it was an _island_ " he mumbled seeing the sheer…size of Signal.

He could see where the natural island was which was already reasonably large but then there were the clear expansions which increased the size of Patch to quadruple what it naturally was. The sight of Signal was amazing to the very least.

At the very centre was a giant spiral building that took up a good portion of the main island. Surrounding that giant figure were four islands of different designs which made the entire place seem strange and exotic in nature. More than that, Jaune had no idea how they did it but it seemed that they somehow managed to recreate a forest area, desert area, frozen area and a swamp area as part of the expanded islands.

If this was considered one of the 'minor' Academies than what did Beacon look like?

"Technically it's between the size of a large town or small city by Remnant standards. It needs to be a _lot_ larger if it wants to be considered a city and that's if Vale even lets it because of one of the laws it has" said Hazel to the side, obviously hearing his words.

One of the many laws of Vale and the Kingdoms of Remnant in general is of population control to a limited degree. In the more pure logical standpoint, limiting the number of gatherings of people would minimise the risk of Grimm attacking after an incident of great negative emotions.

Practically, there were many 'unofficial' cities out there that aren't recognised because they are too important or too difficult to remove. Of course, the capital of Vale, named _Vale_ itself is the largest city of the Kingdom and is only matched at the other cities whose Kingdoms were also named after.

"Anyway we should be splitting up here" said Hazel. Turning to look at Lavender, the Huntsman then said, "Our stop is in another direction. It's been good teaming up with you two."

"Bye-bye~"

"No problem. I hope to team up with you at a later point if fate deems it possible" Pyrrha smiled.

Jaune looked startled at the words and asked quickly, "Wait what? We're splitting up now? Just like that?"

"Yeaaah?" Lavender tilted her head, "I mean this isn't like the Academies where you're stuck with your team for _forever_ but a mutual temporary agreement that ends at a reasonable point in time."

"…."

Frozen on the spot, what Jaune was shocked at right now wasn't of that his team of a month was splitting but rather Lavender was making _sense_. Then, a horrible epiphany presented itself to his mind.

Was…Lavender _faking_ her insanity to toy with him?

"Lavender…from since a month ago, were you-" he started to say.

But was interrupted by said Huntress, "Of _course_ , in this part of the story, the allies of the _protagonist_ will disappear for a while and yet- _reappear_ at the times of need for the _hero_ in his time of need. It will be _months_ or yet _years_ before the _story_ allow us to reappear with proper _screen time_."

"…."

"Never mind" Jaune waved with a deadpanned expression, "I must have been imaging things."

"That is the most reasonable solution to her madness" Hazel nodded sagely before grabbing the collar of Lavender's outfit and dragging her away. Soon enough, their bodies disappeared from sight and it was only Pyrrha left with him.

"So…" he said a bit shyly, "It's just the two of us again."

"Yes it is" she replied a bit _too_ cheerfully.

"You really didn't get along with them?" he frowned.

She shook her head, "Not really. I'm more neutral to their presence and I bet they're the same way except to you…" she trailed off before starting to lead him somewhere. He wasn't sure where they were going but he trusted Pyrrha to the point he didn't question wherever she was leading him.

Soon enough, they were taking the path towards one of the expansion islands that was literally a forest. Passing by a couple of people, Jaune was starting to feel unsure about all of this. They hadn't stopped to ask for anything and they were going in so deep?

"Pyrrha…are you sure we're allowed to be here?" he asked. His eyes were rapidly taking in the sights and at the same time, looking out for people running up to them so he knew when to bolt while dragging his partner with him.

He didn't want to be arrested after all. Normally such a thing wouldn't be problem because Hunters had certain privileges as long as they make sure not to cross a certain line but this was a _Hunter_ Institution which meant everything was govern by other Hunters and rule breaking won't be so lenient.

In fact, he can actually see a couple of people being escorted somewhere with metal bands tied on their wrists behind their backs.

"What did they do?" he wondered though listening in on comments revealed that they overdid it in one of their fights and tried to kill each other using too much dust when both were too low on Aura.

Said explosion would've harmed the audience as well so Signal's administration stepped in.

Still, there were a lot of people around here. Most of them were Hunters that were at least D rank and Jaune himself was a bit embarrassed of the Grade of his own equipment. He had the money to upgrade them but it never really came up because they were travelling so much to this location in the first place.

That and it would be a waste of money to upgrade anything but the best thing he could get as possible. Of course, that was compounded by the fact that his fight style really didn't rely on any equipment he carried than not. Signal has pretty good craftsmen that are only second to what those at Beacon and Vale can get access to.

"Of course" she replied nonchalantly to his first question.

Soon enough, they arrived at a cleared out space in the middle of the forest that they were in. Jaune could see that there were a total of four platforms, all of which were extremely mechanical in nature. He estimated that they were 15 by 20 metres long. Following Pyrrha down to where the platforms were located, he spotted a middle aged man buffed in heavy gear standing to the side with a glare at everyone and everything.

So naturally Pyrrha started talking to him quickly, "Hi! I'm here to test my partner for Level 3 Acess to Signal."

The Hunter paused for a moment before Pyrrha flashed a card made from her A.U.R.A system. Jaune really didn't know what they worked in practised, something about hard light or something but they were really so much more useful than carrying too many physical things on hand.

"One Level 3 Access Test coming through!" the man (Hunter) shouted causing a small commotion.

As the man shouted that, Jaune could hear the platforms that were used for fighting (he presumed) started shifting with a slight grinding noise in the background as the four became one large platform. At the same time, everyone near the platforms started to rapidly clear out of the area and towards where the audience stands were.

And from what he could see, there were a _lot_ of people here.

Suddenly he wasn't looking forward to this.

"So…what are we doing here exactly?" Jaune asked, trying to distract himself.

"Fighting."

"Fighting? As in fighting other people?" he asked again.

"Yes" she nodded, " _You_ fighting other _Hunters_."

"Oh."

He stood there silently before his mouth caught up with his brain.

" _WHAT_?! Why am I fighting other Hunters?" he demanded. His partner gave him another one of her curious looks, "Signal like the Academies have a certain… _standard_. As a C rank Huntress I can get in easily with the majority the features it provides but you can't."

His eye twitched, "What about Hazel and Lavender then?"

They have left and presumably were doing the same thing as him now that he thought about it.

"They're taking their own tests elsewhere as pairs else doing something else. Since it's unfair for me to fight alone side with you, you're taking the singles test to get into Signal properly" she reasoned, "That and I managed to make your test a bit harder than normal to grant you more privileges outright. If I hadn't then you would've needed to wait weeks or months to get your access upgraded. I suspect you rather immediately get access to the Forge to get proper Hunter equipment sooner than later right?"

On one hand, what she did was very considerate for him. But on the other hand he had _no_ idea what he was getting into thanks to her now. He didn't know whether to laugh or cry to that.

"Do I have to join Signal to get access to this?" he suddenly asked. That was something he was curious about as well. How did…admission work in a place like this?

Thankfully his partner shook her head, "Signal is surprisingly forward about this. As long as you pass their test, anyone can have access to their tools for a price. Though tutors and proper aid are only given to actual students of Signal as well as any discounts."

A few seconds later the nearby Hunter said, "Right Miss Nikos, please leave the premise. Mr Arc, please step on stage for your test."

After saying that, she nodded to the Hunter and left the stage thus making him a lot more nervous than before.

He was not ready. Seriously, as a person who had failed for most of his life, he knew when he would fail or not more than most other people. However he didn't want to fail. Therefore he had to act in order to succeed but at the time risk failing.

It was a strange line of thoughts that eventually concluded that Jaune should do his best no matter what.

Still, it seemed that despite going on the stage to fight, he still had a bit of time to think about things. Therefore he turned his thoughts on Signal and this test that he was going to have to do without any information about it. Perhaps Pyrrha forgot to give him those details or he forgot about it?

Maybe.

Hopefully.

It made some of sense that any kind of training institution would make their more useful features restricted to those they deem worthy of it. Charity was not a thing that tends to happen often in Remnant for good reason. But Jaune wondered what would happen if he failed.

He rather not think about it.

A minute later, another different Hunter stepped on the stage with him.

"You're the one wanting the Level 3 Access test?" the gruffly looking man asked. He was a bear of a man and like that stereotype he heard many times, was pretty hairy but probably extremely strong and tough. Not someone you want to cross with.

Jaune nodded, "Yeah."

"…Right" the man took a _look_ at his equipment but didn't comment further on it before explaining, "The Level 3 Access Test will allow you access to several facilities including the Skills Library which is restricted to Level 2 Access and the Forge where Hunter gear is created and is restricted to Level 3 Access only. Training Grounds are available to everyone with Level 1 Access."

Hearing that, Jaune nodded again while understanding _why_ Pyrrha seemed to have made the test harder for him. Aside from getting access to more _skills_ , what he needed much more were proper equipment for him to use.

"Please note that there is no _completely_ fail in this test. If you completely bomb the test then I'll just set you to Level 1 Access with a suggestion to work harder to get re-tested later. If you lose and _because_ it is due to your gear or some other factor, I might still give you Level 3 Access."

"So I just have to do well enough to impress you to get what I want?" he asked.

"Pretty much. Make sure not to die. The paperwork is hell when I have to explain to the Guild how I managed to lose them one of their resources. Oh and make it a show. The audience prefers if you do and horrid sportsmanship may get you lynched" he advised.

Jaune gulped as he waited.

Soon enough not one, not two but _three_ Hunters came up to the fight stage with him. All three of them were male and each of them had different weapons but noticeably without identifiable gun-type weapons. One had a one-handed sword, another with two daggers and the last with a large two-handed war-hammer.

And he noticed that all of them were transforming weapons as well.

"Pyrrha" he called out, "Why am I facing _three_ Hunters at once?"

"Because the Level 3 Access test requires to you to face three Hunters at the same time! Be glad that they are _only_ at D rank" the gruffly man shouted back a short distance away but close enough that he could stop the fight if he wanted.

"Right" he muttered under his breath, "Just have to defeat three Hunters…who I don't know anything about aside from their weaponry…better play it safe…or I could take on them quickly."

Looking at them a bit more he added, "Though I _think_ they're not as bright as one might expect."

"READY?"

-o-

"START!"

Pyrrha watched her partner immediately spring into actions, retreating from his opponents before his White Aura sprang from his body in clunks and began creating the forms of two Aura Soldiers at the same time. And how much her partner spent his Aura was up not to question due to the giant screen telling everyone his Aura levels.

Jaune's Aura dipped down to 40% almost immediately at the start of the battle.

"Oh this might be bad. Kid doesn't have a lot of Aura it seems" said a bystander to her. There were a couple of them crowding near her and she knew that it wasn't only due to her appearance.

She sighed. Sometimes she really hated her fame. But at the same time, it was due to her fame that allowed Jaune to take this test immediately instead of waiting for a month to get the paperwork processed among many other things.

The person next to her was chattering away but she didn't pay much attention to him and placed her full attention to her partner. Still, it was polite to reply anyway, "Not really. Jaune had fought in a lot worst conditions with a lot less. That and he actually has a lot of Aura."

She took a look at the bystander and almost rolled her eyes at him. It was really the standard 'look' that 'certain' types of Hunters built themselves around. The really good long hair, too wide eyes and so on to make a handsome face that people will 'love'. Pyrrha doubted that this person's personality was as real as the make-up he was wearing.

Also, men wearing _that_ much make-up? She wanted to raise an eyebrow to that but resisted.

"Summoning three of those Aura Constructs took 60% of his Aura. Most people wouldn't just have their reserves drop that low so suddenly. There's no way someone would actually learn something that would take so much of their Aura. It's suicidal" said person scoffed.

Pyrrha wanted to snort to that. Jaune was an unusual Huntsman for good reason. While having a comparable reserve of Aura that was quickly catching up to hers, his primary skill that he based himself off, drained most of it and will continue to do so no matter what.

' _I wonder how Jaune will take this fight_ ' she thought. While small at times, his improvements were surprisingly at the very least.

Physically he was becoming more of a hit and runner, leaving the tanking to his Aura Soldiers but mentally he could easily go from being a back line commander to a general charging in first.

Of course, Pyrrha suspected that Jaune may be a bit more disadvantage here than usual because using verbal commands for his Aura Soldiers was generally a bad idea against anyone but the Grimm. And from what she could tell and the outright admission from Jaune, the reaction speed from his commands is drastically lowered as a result.

"Be careful Jaune…" she muttered. It wouldn't be the first time he didn't something reckless for a 'brilliant' plan of his.

At this point, the battle was less of a conflict and more of a podding from both sides. Pyrrha could see that the three Hunters weren't used to fighting with each other and were more cautious to compensate for that. On the other side, Jaune had to deal with his two Aura Soldiers (One Knight and one Spearman) reacting slower to his commands as he stayed silent.

The battlefield was tense when Jaune fumbled his sword.

"Oh Jaune…" she nearby slapped her face in resignation. She knew what he was doing and it was indeed reckless.

The three Hunters testing Jaune looked, saw a chance and pounced onto it like hyenas mostly ignoring the Aura Soldiers that Jaune had made to instead attack him who seemed to be trying to pick up his sword in time.

And how could anyone in Signal as a student deny that it was a valid tactic? As far as they knew, Jaune had a pretty low amount of Aura if his reserves dropped so suddenly and was _that_ clumsy.

The Aura Soldier skill was quite rare and the only comparison was the Schnee family's Semblance so no many actually knew of it among newer Hunters unless there's a known user nearby for a while. But what was known was that the skill was only as good as the amount of Aura one had and spamming tactics were what the skill was best known for. Quantity over quality is a quality of its own.

Combine this with how Jaune's Aura levels dropped dramatically and that he _fumbled_ his sword only meant to them that his Aura and skill levels weren't that high.

And Pyrrha really didn't blame them for thinking so.

In many ways, Jaune's mind was a wildcard in how he could use it and even more so combined with his semblance. While restricting his use of the Aura Soldier skill, it opened up various options that he could use otherwise that was unique only to him. One of them was the use of Active Skills via his creations.

More than that, more options for Jaune made it easier for him to form tactics in the middle of battle and surprise enemies. And although he was unable to allow his Aura Soldiers to use any passive skills through his semblance, it was still a powerful skill nonetheless.

But there was a slight problem to how they thought.

In reality, Jaune Arc has a _lot of Aura_. So much that even 40% of his Aura was _more_ than the amount most D rank Hunters had and almost to the level that C rank Hunters had. That meant he could use a lot more Aura techniques despite being so 'low' with Aura. Adding this with the fact that he was decent enough with a weapon, he was a strong opponent if you weren't expecting his tactics.

She saw three sets of weapons at the same time about to strike him-

"Aura Burst."

-Before he clapped his hands and his Aura flashbanged the area he was in.

"Agh!"

"What the hell?!"

It took a moment but with the bit of surprise and the use of his (recently gained) passive skill along with the Aura Burst skill, Jaune in the eyes of his opponents and many others disappeared from sight.

Of course the battle didn't end just there.

"What in the world–" the bystander muttered in part disbelief and part shock. If anyone was watching her, they would've seen the slight smirk that was on her face.

To the untrained eye and to those that were trained only a bit, Jaune was flickering as he moved. This was much more effective when he used the Aura Burst skill as well. Due to a combination of both of this, it gave to the illusion he was moving a lot faster than he actually was.

Not to mention it also caused a decent amount of chaos that only made Jaune's advantage widen even more. He did not have the strength to instantly crush his opponent, the speed to overwhelm them with attack nor the dexterity to out-skill them. But what he had was a mind to push for more and more advantages until victory was certain.

In the month was went by too quickly since the invasion, Pyrrha had noticed a change in attitude from Jaune. It wasn't about becoming 'good enough' for him now. He had seen the results of that. It was the determination that few had and fewer resolved to push on no matter what.

 _Victory no matter what._

While some may look down at those who share this mentality, Pyrrha had seen a good share of people in Sanctum who had excel due to it. No honour, no pride and no hesitation to do whatever it takes to survive and _win_. And for her, they were the most difficult opponents to deal with due to the sheer level of _zealous_ they take to their goals.

And for better or worse, Jaune was becoming one of them.

(Though not completely, she noted. If he was then he would've summoned his strongest Aura Soldier and boosted it to the extreme using his semblance instead of evening up the numbers)

Before, he was akin to a formal general leading his soldiers into battle and leading with a calm mind that was a bit stiff in flexibility. Old stories from him as well as the early days of trying to train him reminded her that he was once intent on believing that a battle was one force ramming against another.

Now? He's more akin to a guerrilla strike leader striking where it hurts _fast_ and _viciously_ until he wins or it becomes impossible to do so with countless minor plans to get a bit more out of what he has. And she was seeing the results as well as everyone else who is watching the battle as well.

And although aided with just two Aura Soldiers, both had the same stats as him and at the same time controlled by him meaning the coordination between his side was so much higher than the team sent by Signal for testing. Pyrrha figured that their individual strengths were around D rank at best but were lacking in everything else.

The swordsman was well rounded but had no true advantage, the daggers users specialised too much in speed and too little in defence and the war-hammer user had the power but not the speed to fully utilise his advantage to the fullest. It was plain to see who had the more experience as Jaune seemed to be the only side that was attacking.

Every blow was sent to stop his opponents from attacking him themselves and while not as great as his ability to block and dodge attacks, it was enough for whatever plans he had in mind.

To Pyrrha, Jaune had won this match the moment he got momentum to attack. Her partner was not an especially good fighter and without numbers in Aura Soldiers, he would've lost this match a long time ago. However great his mind was and could be, it meant nothing if he couldn't do anything.

And when he forced them to retreat more and more as the pace of the battle, the pace of _Jaune_ started to increase his attacks more and more which only cemented the soon-to-be victory. She watched as her partner used less of her shield to directly block attacks, now preferring to let it gaze it while countering as much as possible.

By the time the timer hit the minute mark, even this was clear to the participating Huntsmen.

"What the hell is going on?! Neon! Why aren't you forcing him to the defence?" one of the Huntsman shouted to the dagger wielding Huntsman.

Said Huntsman quickly blocked another attack from Jaune's Spearman as it seemed to continuously seek him out exclusively.

"He's too quick! Not to mention those flanhbangs! One moment's he's here and the next-"

A moment later due to the talk resulting in _that_ Huntsman to stop moving for a second, Jaune pounced into action using his Knight to cause the next flashbang before attacking and taking a good deal of the Aura of one of the Huntsmen before retreating again causing more and more frustration that was quite amusing to watch in her perspective.

Due to this flashbang-evade strategy that she was completely sure that Jaune had _just_ made for this fight, he was able to coordinate the two Aura Soldiers he had on the field to attack a couple of times before even _they_ used the same strategy of using flashbangs via small bursts of the Aura Burst skill to retreat and evade any sorts of attacks coming towards them.

In a way, Pyrrha was impressed to what lengths Jaune was willing to take to win. The red-head watched as Jaune easily got around the initial brute force strategy that his opponents tried to use against him. At this point, no one really noticed nor cared that Jaune was using his sword when they hadn't spotted him picking it up.

Jaune moved quickly, no that was an understatement. Jaune was _speeding_ from place to place using his passive skill as much as possible as his opponents flailed around helplessly. He weaved in and out of attacks, using himself as bait as well as a distraction and pincer attack against three Huntsmen at the same time.

However his opponents showed their skills as even with periodic blindness, they were able to parry, block and even counter-attack most of the time against Jaune soon after they got their own bearings. Frowning, she estimated that any of them would be higher than Jaune's own skill level by a good margin. But she reassured herself knowing that Jaune wasn't that kind of fighter which was a good thing.

The battle continued in such a fashion with both sides slowly wittering down each other's Aura reserves. Jaune was down to around 30% while his opponents were at 80%, 76% and 55% respectively in order to the swordsman, daggers user and war-hammer user.

At this point, it seemed that Jaune was going to loss by sheer attrition.

Then the battle turned against the Arc.

A bout later, the swordsman Hunter seemingly transforming his weapon from an average length one to one that was double its length, taking Jaune by surprising seeing that said Aura Soldier didn't manage to completely dodge, losing an arm in the process. Pyrrha could see the panic in the blonde's eyes at that moment as he was forced to use his Knight to block an attack to his left before he flashbanged again to move to another location.

However it seemed that the tactic was becoming less and less effective as the match went on with the three Huntsmen coordinating better than before in trapping Jaune in a box before chipping away at his Aura. It was slow work considering the remains of his Aura supply which was 30% was still equal to the average D rank Hunter.

Using Aura to enhance her eyesight slightly, she could tell there was a certain glint in Jaune's eyes right now and he had a new plan.

"Aura Burst!"

The bright light that was Aura originated from his sword this time shone for a brief moment. The three Huntsmen were ready for that and closed their eyes at the same time. However by closing their eyes, they had achieved the exact same result as Jaune wanted from the very beginning.

To lose sight of him.

Jaune grinned as he pounded on the dagger user while his two Aura Soldiers blocked the path of the other two Huntsmen. Pyrrha could see the gears shift for the three Huntsmen and in a silent agreement, all of them broke off of their attacks and moved to strike at another target.

Taken by surprise again, Jaune in an effort to not be isolated and picked off ordered his two Aura Soldiers to stand guard by him. However the daggers user had his weapons transform into guns, pelleting him with bullet fire forcing him to use his shield more actively as well as sending out his Knight towards the now dual gun user.

At the same time he sent his Spearman to aid the Knight in whatever effort Jaune was thinking of but _that_ Aura Soldier was forced back by the swordsman and with the war-hammer user charging at Jaune with a roar.

Seeing that such a charge was obvious, Pyrrha was expecting Jaune to win pretty soon. If not for noticing that Jaune did not notice he was being charged at.

"Oh Jaune…" she sighed. She really needed to make sure he trained his Perception a lot more.

From the look of things, Jaune was getting tunnel vision which was really _bad_ for a Hunter to have no matter what. As such, it came to no surprise that Jaune didn't realise it until it was too late that he was going to be hit by a larger large weapon.

There was a sickening _crunch_. But it wasn't Jaune that broke.

"GOT HIM!" the war-hammer shouted triumphant assured in his tone.

 _Then_ things got weird. Jaune's Spearman shattered into countless pieces just in time for the swordsman to miss a strike and misstep because of it. And at the same time, _white light_ seemed to centre on where the blow of the war-hammer was still there before it exploded and knocked the war-hammer user out with his Aura dropping to the red immediately.

However instead of pulling the tide of the battle towards Jaune's favour as his Aura refilled by 15% to a healthy 40%, the opposite seemed to happen as the two remaining Huntsmen took said scene as a sign to barrel down on her partner.

"Crap!" Jaune bolted to the side as bullets rained down on him from the dual guns users as he commanded his Knight to retreat to protect him. Even though he had a shield, he wasn't skilled enough to block everything and see what was happening at the same time.

Looking at the floating transparent screen above the field, she could see that his Aura levels were steadily dropping from 40% to 30% again when Jaune was blindsided and flanked. On the other side both Huntsmen had their Aura over 70% and were doing a lot better than Jaune at the moment.

The battle with time that ticked with seconds and moments made it worse for him. He was being battered into place while being unable to properly counter-attack at all. Seeing the shaking in his legs, Pyrrha could tell that any use of his sole passive skill might just him to collapse from the pain.

It was quite a feat to actually have used that non-aura skill so extensively in the first half of the spar even if it meant he couldn't right now. It was another card that he couldn't use anymore. Using Aura Burst was useless as well considering he couldn't hit his two opponents.

Those two were now just wittering down his Aura to end the match at this point which didn't seem to cater any favours from the audience. She knew what it meant to fight on a stage. You have to make it apparent there you are overwhelmingly superior or 'struggle' to have the crowds cheering for you.

Looking around, she could see that Jaune was the underdog for the moment and that was a good thing for some who wanted such a match to turn around for him.

Then, Jaune started rolling on the ground to evasion in a rather… unorthodox manner.

"GET HIM!"

Whatever feeling of pride and concern she was feeling towards him at the moment was quickly replaced by aspiration and resignation. The fact that her partner and team leader could never have a _sane_ plan grated on her nerves sometimes. Especially when it looked as ridiculous as this!

As Mistral's Champion, she would never be allowed to do something like this.

But at the same time, this kind of fighting only made her more attracted to the prospects of teaming up with Jaune. He was unpredictable when he wanted to be and because of that, it was never boring fighting with him when he decided to take charge of a battle.

However, sometimes Pyrrha wondered why some of Jaune's plans involved him acting ridiculous or idiotic in front of everyone.

"Stop rolling around!"

"Are you a Hunter or what?!"

Such comments were being spilled out of the audience that were watching and it seemed that even they agree that such a sight wasn't what they were expecting. That is, until everything turns around for Jaune in a rather bizarre way that most cannot expect. One moment Jaune was rolling on the ground and the next he tripped over the dual guns user.

"Ah!"

With a shout of surprise as his only warning, the swordsman couldn't react in time as Jaune's Knight knocked away his sword from his hand. After that, her partner was up with Aura flaring around his body before he boldly body tackled the swordsman before seemingly slamming his head into the ground with a _crunch_.

And then _repeatedly_ did so until the swordsman's aura was in the red as well.

Even Pyrrha winced at the brutality of that act.

' _I might need to teach Jaune some restraint against his fellow Hunters_ ' she mused before concentrating more to the battle.

But at the same time, she observed that Jaune's own Aura levels were reduced quite a bit as well, lowering down to a mere 20% which was really crossing the line between what would be his victory and lose a bit too tightly.

After defeating two Huntsmen, Jaune was left was only one opponent and continued to dodge attacks mostly avoiding by forcing his body to constantly move and dive out of the way of attacks. It was an impressive feat considering that he was dodging bullet fire to which most blocked instead.

Of course it was then that the remaining Huntsman from Signal decided it was the time to solely use their _ranged_ weaponry on Jaune who was noticeably severely lacking in that. And Pyrrha couldn't even blame the Huntsman in doing such a thing. Taking advantage of such a thing was only pure logic.

"I better remind him to get a range option soon" she added to her muse.

Then again, Jaune was thinking of using Signal to construct some better weaponry for him to use later on. It might be also good if she got a bit of a say in what kind of weapon he would have. He wasn't exactly the most imaginative in weapon designs out there. That and she considered getting a new weapon to use as well considering her performance during that invasion last month.

Closing her eyes, Pyrrha resigned to the fact that Jaune really had a low chance of winning this match.

The battle that extended for another 5 minutes was quite dull. It was dull to the point that many of the Audience had already left and some of the older Hunters that most likely worked for Signal were frowning at their own. She didn't need to my psychic to know loading _several_ clips of bullets into a sole fellow Hunter was a big no to winning.

And while Jaune was forced to defence himself and constantly attempted to counter-attack using whatever methods he could think of, he made a good effort to try and get in close though he wasn't fast enough without his passive skill aiding him. From what she could tell from the crowd in Signal, they seemed to appreciate the stubbornness her partner had.

The less said about what they felt of the remaining Signal Huntsman the better. He frankly _refused_ to get back in range for her partner to fight him properly. She could literally see the veins coming out of the referee's forehead even from afar at what this meant for the match and what it represented.

It didn't put Signal in a good light if their entrance test to use their facilities involved one of their own using 'cheap tactics' at least in the spirit of sparring.

While she believed this was a perfectly valid tactic for a normal spar, this was supposed to be a _test_ and judging by the looks some of the older Hunters were giving him, she bet that they would be heavily lectured on it.

And due to this, eventually Jaune's Aura levels were dropped _barely_ into the red causing the match to end which wasn't a surprise but still disappointing in how it ended.

"ENOUGH!" the referee shouted, "MATCH HAS ENDED."

Hearing that, Pyrrha calmly watched Jaune's frustrated and resigned look. She remembered that look on his face. It was the look he had on constantly before she asked him to allow her to party with him.

A few seconds later, Jaune dismissed his remaining Aura Soldier which she knew increased his Aura levels back up by 15%. There were mumblings as the results also showed on the holographic screen above the field. Especially _after_ his Aura levels _increased_ from dismissing his remaining Aura Soldier.

 **[MATCH ENDED]**

 **[WINNER: SIGNAL HUNTERS]**

 **[Jaune Arc (34%) vs Signal Hunters (17%) (13%) (58%)]**

Pyrrha knew there were going to be some _words_ towards the Signal Hunters and she didn't have any pity for them. From the very beginning, they were taken off guard by Jaune and it was only because of attrition and number advantages that they had _barely_ managed to win, and a cheap win to that.

But she was more worried about Jaune than uncaring to those three Huntsmen.

Jaune could've drawn the battle longer to try and find a way to win. But he didn't and she knew why. What was the point of struggling for longer when you knew you were going to lose anyway? What was the point of continuing when your opponent had all the advantages? What was the point of going on when it only made you look even more desperate?

It was something she experienced on the other side of with opponents surrendering to her before anything could start. And while _she_ had always made sure Jaune always had a chance to win no matter how small in their spars, not everyone was so kind. The Grimm weren't so kind.

And it made her strangely happy that there were thing that Jaune refused to throw away for winning.

This was probably the first time ever since Jaune met her that he was forced in such a situation. And it may be a crippling blow until he can get himself back together later on. But Pyrrha believed that Jaune would get over it sooner or later so it wasn't a big problem for them.

"Well hopefully this motivates him to not avoid my training" she muttered. There were times when he was strangely accepting of any method to make him stronger and other times when he wasn't.

In a way, despite all his minor changes over the month, her partner was quite naïve. But in the end, every battle was a learning experience and she was sure that Jaune learnt from this. If anything, frustration and embarrassment goes a long way to motivate someone.

-o-

Taiyang Xiao Long was an impressive man when it both came to his body and combat. Although nowhere the strongest member of his now defunct team ( _that_ belonged to Raven and Summer, the greater pair they joked), he was more than capable of keeping up with them and at the same time develop a reputation for his unarm combat skills.

And though he never managed to breech the fabled S-rank barrier; his true skill laid for administration and teaching the next generation. This took shape in his ability to manage Signal Academy which he was proud to say that was only second to the four Major Academies that all lied in the capital cities of each Kingdom.

The proof of this is from the cooperation of the Hunter faction known worldwide as The Guild. They mainly based in Vale as a whole though there are shattering parts in Mistral and Vacuo though Atlas refused their existence on their land. However, the most important part to note was that with accumulating with Guild Hunters in any learnings or services they needed, the income for Signal exploded to several times what it used to.

It was enough to turn Signal from another small Academy that was controlled by Beacon to a powerhouse on its own that _allied_ with Beacon and the Guild at the same time. Still, Taiyang was never a profiteer and had his roots as the Headmaster of Signal and recently allowed his daughter be accepted into Beacon 2 years earlier than most could hope.

He hoped that Ruby managed to curb most of Yang's… _unfortunate_ habits that she somehow picked up from him.

Besides leading the next generation by teaching them the _foundations_ of how to keep themselves alive, he sometimes took charge of certain administrative aspect of the Academy that had its own department working constantly on it. Of course, right now he was only doing this because Qrow and by proxy Ozpin wanted a readout on any new potential Hunters to develop further.

If joining Signal was equivalent to a civilian high-school degree then Beacon was equivalent a University one. _Anyone_ could get into Signal but only a select few that has the ability and better yet, potential could get into Beacon. Of course, there are tell signs of knowing who would achieve more in life than others.

Certain… _families_ were simply better Hunters than others, most of the time that is.

"That Arc kid really got his ass kicked in front of everyone today" Qrow almost sang with glee.

Taiyang sighed, "That's not exactly the attitude we're wanting in Signal you know, even though you _are_ one of its teachers. Jaune Arc did perfectly well for what was expected in 17 years old Huntsmen."

"Still! It's a surprise to see an Arc that _sucked_ that much in a long time" the drunken man laughed before taking another slip from his flask.

The mature one of the two groaned. Ever since one Olivia Arc quite literally _destroyed_ him when he slapped her ass, Qrow Branwen seemed to have an enmity against the family as a whole and also the Schnee family…Valkyrie family…and most of the known Huntresses of Vale that are stronger than him after each _incident_.

Looking down on the page that was surprisingly _paper_ (much harder to steal unless in person), the blonde read the results of the match among other known information about him while watching the clip on his match that left him flinching at certain parts.

As a Huntsman, Jaune Arc was actually decent and possibly exceptional if you consider his level of progress only jump started 4 months ago. However compared to his siblings and parents, he was quite slow. All of them like his partner, the known Pyrrha Nikos in many circles were all C rank _minimum_ by the age of 17.

However he could not fault Jaune for being weaker than his siblings for now. For an Arc, Jaune was actually an average one in any case. It's a known fact that Arcs came in two packages. Terrifying powerful with physical prowess or terrifying insane with too little common sense.

The young Huntsman seemed to be of the latter instead of the former…

In a way, the young Arc would probably become more terrifying than his siblings could ever be in the future. His sisters might be extremely talented but they would never breach the S-rank barrier like him. They did not have the _potential_ that separated those who were superhuman to _monsters in human skin_.

Like this oaf in front of him…

And from what he could see, with the amount of Aura the young Huntsman had (which were quite high for his level of training), he had a decent shot at it. Combine this with the Aura Soldier skill (that was quite surprising to see for someone his age) and not to mention the nature of his Semblance…

Sometimes he really would like to know how _both_ Ozpin and Cinder gather their information. It was surprisingly detailed to the point that there was a few pages worth of speculations of what the boy's semblance could be and how it would affect certain important skills.

The Semblance officially named ' _Aura Transfer Type-A34GT'_ was typically for an Arc to have in that it _can_ protect him from physical blows (other types of damage is yet untested) but what it differs in is that it is quite unreliable in most cases ( _why_ would a semblance only activate for fatal blows?).

Of course, that pales in comparison to the possibilities that such a semblance has towards most Aura based abilities. The Aura Soldier skill was the prime example being that it is _supposed_ to be a skill that allows for a large number of exploitable sacrifices in battle. Jaune's semblance turned it into something that was akin to having a small squad of Hunters with him at all times.

Then there was the Aura Burst skill…the skill itself was a _flash burner_ type of Aura skill that was useful against _weaker_ Grimm. The fact that he somehow managed to convert that skill into a _pure_ flash type skill was remarkable even though there are actual skills of that type in existence. The list went on for what other possible skills that could be altered in his hands but Taiyang could just summarise that as 'they don't have a clue'.

"Qrow I didn't ask you to help me based off how he compares to his _siblings_. I want to know of what Level Access he should get in Signal" he said.

"Might as well give him the Level 3 Access right away" Qrow voiced, "The gear he was using…"

The man shuddered in disgust, " _Grade 1_ stuff. On a Hunter. I don't know the kid if too cheap or is plain stupid but no good Hunter should work with that level of stuff for too long before a Grimm bites through it to your throat."

Taiyang could only agree to that last statement. He was actually surprised that the sword hadn't snapped into pieces when used to pound on the obviously superior armour that was worn,

"Perhaps he's here to use our services to make him _better_ gear?" the blonde suggested.

Taking another sig from his flask, Qrow muttered, "Might be. Probably best to 'suggest' to him to get a damn range option. That last part of his fight was damn _pathetic_ on too many levels for me to hate him."

Taiyang could only smirk to that. It seems that despite his protests, Raven had indeed rubbed off on him a bit. It was more than anyone could expect considering the siblings' relationship but in a way he was hopeful that his ex-wife was doing fine.

She was still an active Hunter…though belonging to the Guild now.

-o-

"You did well. Better than expected and yet victory was in sight for most of the match."

"But I still lost" he sighed in the tone of long-suffering, "And I was made a fool of. I couldn't even do anything to that last Huntsman because I wasn't fast enough and because I didn't have any range options. If I picked up even a pistol before…"

"Well you always expected to be at least that disadvantaged by not picking up a ranged weapon. And I don't expect it making much of a difference considering you lack training in firearms" said Pyrrha. She was comforting him and as a result was causing some strange looks to come on them both.

Was she _that_ famous or something?

"Yeah…I'll have to start when I'm allowed to use Signal's Forge to order a good weapon. What do you think I can buy with the lien I have?" he asked. He was allocating the half a million lien he had on hand to this.

Pyrrha frowned, "With the amount you have…possibly a Grade 3 or 4 weapon. If you want armour with that then you'll probably have to settle for Grade 3 material for your weapon if you also want decent and _light_ armour."

"Though you have to know that I'm _perfectly_ fine with helping with the costs" she said after a pause.

Jaune shook his head and ignore the looks and _glares_ he was getting to that last suggestion from his partner. Hunter weapons were expensive. Armour was only _just_ cheaper because there are no transforming parts…unless you want transforming armour which costs so much more than most can afford.

It didn't help that half a million lien was only enough to get a _decent_ weapon that was neither exceptional to see nor truly innovative. Of course, there are those who built their weapons to medicate their costs but Jaune knew that it required years of study that he didn't have. Still, that amount of lien was a _lot_ to younger Hunters and nothing to scoff of among the older and more experienced ones.

"You know that me taking your lien isn't going to help me in the long term" Jaune sighed, "I rather not to be in _more_ debt to you. I already owe you my life several times over and probably any use of my body for a _long_ time."

For some reason Pyrrha blushed…and a couple of other people as well who seemed to be eavesdropping.

"You know, I'm suddenly seeing one of the reasons why I left in the first place."

Jaune turned and with a surprise let out, "YOU!"

With a sigh, the Huntsman that he knew as Hazel sighed with Lavender giggling behind him. What was most noticeable was that a good chunk of his armour was broken off and his right arm was in a cast.

"Yes me" he paused while patting the cast, "Though you look a lot better than me at any rate."

"Yep. Hazel here got his ass _kicked_ " said Lavender in a good mood, " _I_ on the other hand got through my bit perfectly fine.

Hazel's eyes twitched and his face took an irritated look, "That's because you decided to _flash_ those bastard opponents of yours. And then proceeded to fire on their ball _repeatedly_ until they fainted."

Jaune winced. He did not need that image. He certainly did not need to know Lavender for that long to know that she would do such a thing with a gleeful smile on her face which only made it even more terrifying.

Now that he thought about it, it was a good thing that they split up as a team. At least he wouldn't be directly associated with someone who would aim for the male anatomy's ' _weakness_ '.

And now that he thought about it…she _did_ aim for those parts a bit too much during training.

"Anyway, nice seeing you two again. I'm going to get our results" said Hazel before starting to drag Lavender away with him.

Jaune looked at the pair confused, "Huh. Wonder why he seemed to want to get away so suddenly? And aren't the test result messaged to our A.U.R.A systems?"

"Perhaps he wishes to get his results more privately or possibly ask about certain aspects of his grade to one of the supervisors" answered Pyrrha.

"Is that actually a thing here?" he wondered.

She nodded, "I believe so, though I suspect it's only to Hunters enrolled. We are guests here so we don't get the benefit…though I am unsure if Hazel and Lavender joined Signal. With its resources and opportunities, many do to prepare for entry to Beacon."

"Perhaps joining would be a good option then if it allows people to train to get into Beacon."

"I suggested not to Jaune. While the facilities and teachers allow for better resource access than most, it is still inferior to personal training" she spoke confidentially, "And more than that, you're more likely to be limited here since Signal and Beacon requires you to have a _complete_ education which means you'll have to catch up on all civilian based topics before you graduate."

"Never mind then. Having more freedom is always a better thing in my opinion" he laughed before gulping a bit. It had been _years_ since he had brushed up on…well stuff that didn't involve Hunter stuff.

He didn't want to spend more years on something he wasn't sure was going to be useful when a Grimm is trying to kill him.

Soon enough, Jaune heard a ping in his ear, "Ah. Looks like I got my results now."

"Oh. Let me see" Pyrrha moved over to his direct side as Jaune activated the 'shared' feature that A.U.R.A allows on a limited scale.

 **[Level 3 Access Test Results**

 **Participant Name: Jaune Arc**

 **Participant Hunter ID: 341544**

 **Offence: B-**

 **Defence: C**

 **Finesse: D+**

 **Tactics: B**

 **Overall Grade: C+ PASS]**

 **[Granted Level 3 Access to Signal]**

"Good offence and tactics that makes sense…defence needs some more work though that's more because of lack of shield work and finesse really is that low because of a lack of direct close combat or remarkable dodging skills for the second half of the match" he heard his partner mumble under her breath as she concentrated on the results.

He smiled while trying not to distract her. In any case, he passed. He was a bit surprise of how high his offence grade was considering it was never something he exceeded in though like Pyrrha said, it was probably due to his lack of _defence_ than anything else that pushed him to attack more.

His tactics grade was pretty high which was always a good thing but at the same time he knew it could've been higher if he baited, stalled and manipulated the battle more. Jaune really didn't have the patient to do all of that and not expect something to go wrong. However the kicker was that his finesse score was quite low to the point that he actually failed with it, if barely.

It was a very _weak_ kicker considering that Jaune never considered himself that handy with a sword. Not to mention that he specialises in a completely different area from using actual weaponry, even if it's a useful skill to have nonetheless to survive if all else fails.

Jaune looked curiously at the new notification that sprang up a second after the first from his A.U.R.A interface.

 **[Signal Academy Access Acceptance: Level 3]**

 **[Grants access to:**

· **General Training Areas**

· **Skills Library**

· **The Forge**

 **Other unlisted facilities require a higher level access or to become a Signal Student]**

"Looks like I passed and managed to get the access thing" he said, snapping Pyrrha out of her thought.

"Right, yes. Of course Jaune. Should we go to the forge now to get a weapon design that you like?" she asked.

He nodded happily while holding out his sword and shield, "Yeah, it'll be a good thing to finally graduate to something new and better. Hey, weren't you thinking of making a new weapon as well?"

"Yes. I have the idea and designs already mostly mapped out" she said with a smile.

"You mean the one with the iron sand idea?"

"Nope" she grinned, " _Iron_ whip. With detachable parts that are _guns_ and it is also a sword in its normal form. I might consider the iron sand idea if I can somehow program it in pre-set shapes. Otherwise I would need to concentrate too much on shaping for it to work. Or I could use blood."

Jaune opened and closed his mouth but nothing came out. There were too many things in those sentences that were too wrong to consider. Yeah, he didn't want to be responsible for Pyrrha the _blood-bender_.

"…."

"I…see. That iron whip idea may be quite powerful if it turns out the way you want it" he sweated a bit on _how_ someone with a semblance to control metal could use a weapon like what Pyrrha was describing.

At any rate, her seeming problem of apparently not having a good enough weapon against Grimm would be solved. From what he could tell of her telling him about what she intends for the weapon as they walked, it would solve her problem of not attacking as many Grimm as she liked.

"Though that reminds me, what kind of weapon should I get and should I also get a new shield? I don't know how much it'll cost me though."

"Hmm…" she pondered before suggesting, "A new shield is a must. If suggest a good even between durable and aura conducting materials."

"That makes sense though I'm not sure if it's better to just get the most durable shield I can. But I deter to your judgement on this" Jaune nodded to himself, "Aura Burst is a decent skill considering I can alter the level of power when I use it thanks to my semblance. It would be useful to use it with my shield to blind an opponent while blocking."

"What about my weapon?" he asked after a beat.

"I suggest a sword as a base as well as a gun addition to it" she suggested, "The rest of the specifics are up to you. There is a lot of customisability that you can decide on when it comes to Hunter weapons. I suggest commissioning a simpler weapon to use to reduce any complications."

Part of him _really_ wanted to be insulted to those last words but he just couldn't. If he let his pride out and commissioned a really complicated weapon, chances were that he couldn't use it properly and would only make a fool of himself.

That said, a _simple_ sword and shield combination would be best with his options but it would just be a waste to _not_ include some extra parts to a weapon that he would be using to save time and money. Though…was this line of thinking why Hunter weapons had gotten so much more complex over the years?

He tapped his chin in thought, "Definitely want something compact then since I can't see myself with an overly large weapon like Hazel. Not to mention how hard it would be to move all the time. Hmm…maybe something like a switch-knife but sword sized Pyrrha?"

"That may work" she agreed.

Tilting his head a bit before he asked, "How would you add a gun bit to that?"

"I can see making it a large high calibre multi-fire gun in its compact mode can work. A lower calibre fire mode can be switched when the blade is out as well. If you really want, I can see that you also get a sniper form as well in your weapon" she continued to suggest.

"Wow. Wow" he raised his hands, "Let's not get too far so soon. We're trying to make my weapon _simple_ to use right? Having a third sniper mode would just make it worse for me to learn how to use and probably cost a bit more than I can afford."

"Only about another million…" she muttered.

"What was that?"

"Nothing" she looked away.

Jaune furrowed his eyes a bit but didn't question her after that. But after a while he blurted out, "You know. I want you to thank you for all of this. I've…couldn't have made it without you and would've died if you never had picked me up."

"No problems" she smiled, "Though I recall it was _me_ who joined you, not the other way around."

He laughed, "Of course. It was a huge shocker for me when a pretty lady suddenly came up to me and asked to join my party. I was actually pretty shocked when it came up. Thought it was a joke for a while…"

"Still, back on the topic of weapons" he said without missing a beat, "Do people really design and make super complicated weapons all the time?"

"If they can that is. Dual-formed weapons are a whole level more costly than single formed weapons. And triple or the even rarer quad-triple formed weapons costs minimum in the millions of the lien to get each and in the latter's case, hundreds of millions of lien" she explained.

"The reason why most Hunters use shape-shifting weapons if they can is because having one is the same as having two weapons on hand instead of one leaving you with more options. More options mean you have more ways to react and more cards of your selves to use which leads to better survivability."

She paused.

"That and having a transforming weapon looks _really_ cool" she added with a nod to her thoughts.

Jaune himself thought back on how his partner's weapon changed form so easily as she beat down enemies with extreme ease to the point that she looked as if she was dancing around her enemies.

"I can help you on designing your weapon you know. Your suggestions are rather tame compared to what most others want not to mention that Signal craftsmen charge a healthy amount to design a weapon."

"That and it's likely they'll try to design one of those space compressed transforming weapons to make you pay more" she continued, "Space compressed transforming weapons are _extremely_ complicated to make and maintain which is why anyone who has one is quite wealthy. I heard the person who made her briefcase into a portable gatling-gun spent several tens millions lien on her weapon."

"…Though it apparently doesn't compare to what her partner uses according to the rumours" she added after a pause.

"Hmm, I'm starting to not be surprised by the amount of lien Hunters spend on their weapons" Jaune voiced before shaking his head in too much disbelief. To think that only a few decades ago, transforming weapons were _rare_.

Soon enough they were at where the Forge was and after a couple of minutes of further walking they were standing in front of a _large_ metal steel set of doors. It wasn't just large but large to the point that the doors were almost as tall as the building that it was on to the limits. And considering that the building was a couple tens of metres tall, the door was damn tall.

Jaune couldn't help but to think on _why_ the door needed to be this large and have the words ' _The Forge_ ' on top of it. Looking around more, he also couldn't help but to notice that there were a couple of thankfully smaller doors to the sides.

"Wonder what the purpose of such a large door is for" he asked.

"Mostly large equipment they need to pull through. Signal also uses this place to forge high calibre Anti-Grimm weapons for city walls when they need to" she explained before leading him through one of the side doors.

Pass that was…

"Welcome to the Signal Forge Jaune."

* * *

 **A/N: So things are finally starting to pick up in this Arc. Normally I would consider having each 'Arc' have some sort of final enemy but at the rate I want to go to this series, there will probably be one main arch-enemy and everything else leading towards it. So yeah, expect this series to be quite slow till that point. I am going to enjoy compounding events over each other to make things worse for everyone.  
**

 **Anyway, a couple things to consider. Pyrrha's new weapon. I'm deciding whether it being a flexible sword whose main form is of a whip with the ability to extend the length of its attack or a sword which can extend and attack like a whip. Two very different concepts and I'm leaning towards the latter in design because it's less of a 'hidden' weapon but rather another open weapon that she can use to deal maximum damage. Among many things I had considered for Pyrrha included Iron Sand and even Blood (the latter was _way_ to creepy to use) which led to Blood-bending memories from Avatar. **

**Jaune's weapon will be much simpler. The base model is basically Lightning's own from FFXIII which I found was a good enough combination of a melee weapon and gun but rather simplistic. There may be a couple changes in design in my mind but the function will be pretty much the same. Too bad I can't see Jaune being any good at using a sniper or any ranged weapons without screwing up too much.**

 **As for the fight itself, I had to rewrite it. The first draft left Jaune pretty much being pounding and kicked down literally by 3 D rank Hunters while the second draft was the result of Jaune not winning nor being stomped into the ground so much. I had a lot of fun writing of how Jaune basically flash-banged his opponents repeatedly even if the level of light would only blind them for a split second.**


	10. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer: I own nothing of RWBY which belongs to Rooster Teeth and the late Monty Owm.**

* * *

 **Chapter 10**

 **A Signal to Forge**

Heat.

 _Burning_ Heat.

That was all he was feeling on his skin-no, burning into his flesh itself as he walked behind Pyrrha who seemed indifferent to all of it. It took him a few moments but he realised he needed to use Aura to go in deeper into this place without literally cooking as prime meat and promptly activated Aura Enhancement all over his body.

The feeling of being cooked alive decreased almost to nothing the moment he used a considerable amount of his remaining Aura to get through the effects. Due to this, he had a lot more leeway on looking around to see what kind of place he was currently in.

"Wow."

The Forge itself looked more like a factory than anything that an Academy _should_ have with large intimidating structures pouring down molten metal all around as ore was turned into metal that would become weapons in a cycle. Jaune could see that while most of the actions were committed by machines, Hunters or those who had Aura were the one who controlled everything.

Hunter weapons were being mass-produced here. And that was an amazing sight to him who saw such weapons as luxury items for so long without the money to spend on them. More than that, the pieces of Hunter weapons were being mass produced to such a large extent that there could be possibly hundreds of thousands of parts being made before his eyes.

"Follow along Jaune. Try not to fall behind here. The craftsman don't like 'curious' Hunters bothering them too much when they work" Pyrrha advised.

"Yeah sure" he agreed. The sheer… _intensity_ of each craftsman who had their own workbenches right next to where the furnaces blazed with boiling heat made him feel uncomfortable. More so when the logic in his mind said that having workbenches near places that require Aura to last in were idiotic at best.

Even with his Aura mitigating the worst of the heat, he couldn't tell how these people could just stay in here all day long without getting heat-stroke or something worse. Perhaps there was some effective passive skill that helps them? Thinking along the lines of what such a skill required to be learnt ultimately made him give up on gaining such a skill.

If it was as effective as he thought it would be, than he had no intentions ever learning it. The more effective a passive skill tends to be, the stricter the requirements and more align to torture it seems to be and in some horrid cases, actually were.

Past all of this, the red-head eventually lead Jaune into another large room but small in comparison to the hall size one they were just in.

"This is the commission room" she explained with Jaune only raising an eyebrow before asking, "Why is this room after the boiling room?"

It was a good question in his mind and yet it got the receptionist/craftsman at the desk chuckling.

"That's because if we don't then we would've been overrun with _brats_ wanting weapons that they can't pay or are impossible to design" the man voiced his amusement, "And also because it makes Hunters like you…more _respectful_ after seeing somewhat of the harsher conditions we craftsmen have to work in all the time."

"So you really have to work under boiling heat?" he asked. Taking a closer look, the shorter man was the image of a clique craftsman in his mind. Relatively shorter, tanned and has a white hairy face, beard included in thick clothes in a rough image.

"Not at all" the craftsman said, " _That_ serves as both a punishment and a way to learn one of the more important passive skills that craftsmen work with. _Heat Resistant_ allows many to forge without use of that fancy equipment that Atlas seems to be reliant on. It's no wonder why their Aura forces are suffering so much compared to everyone else."

"Technology cannot completely replace what Aura always did" Pyrrha seemed to quote from somewhere. He could tell mainly because the words seemed light on her tongue and without much weight compared to her other more passionate speeches.

Looking at both of them, Jaune came to the conclusion, "You two know each other."

"Yes."

"We do."

He hesitated for a moment before then asking, "How exactly do you two know each other? And when did you come to Signal before Pyrrha?"

"It's an old story back when I first landed on Vale a while back" she replied though not continuing whatever story that led to.

The old man however did, "The rather tall lady here made the _stupid_ mistake of breaking one of the gears to her weapon causing it to stay in one form. Naturally she came to the place that was most likely to fix said mistake."

"I could've gone to the capital but decided I wanted to see the other places of the Kingdom more" she glared, "Part of me really wished I didn't with what you made me do in order to fix my weapon."

"Yeah, don't look as if you didn't enjoy it" he smirked while Pyrrha blushed with red anger.

Jaune had a feeling he _really_ didn't want to know what was going on between the two. Not to mention he had a more pressing sinking feeling of his heart being crushed in some form from his too vivid imagination, no thanks to his sisters and their damn drama movies!

Even now, occasionally his mind went to the gutters when it came to things that were _misunderstandings_. God he blamed his sisters whenever he made an ass of himself due to them.

More telling was that Pyrrha wasn't acting like there was some big secret or something horrible that she needed to hide from him. His trust in his partner was a lot higher than his trust of his sisters from one too many pranks and too much teasing over the years.

"Enjoy it?" her eye twitched. She was shaking but it was more due to irritation than to anger. That was the only reason why he wasn't trying to attack the craftsman like a good partner he hopefully was.

"You made me climb a mountain to find an _egg_. That was guarded by a _giant Nevermore_! Without my weapon! And it wasn't even for repairing Milo but rather because you felt like eating a rare ingredient that day!" she almost screamed out.

Oh. Never mind then. He let out a sigh of relief that he couldn't resist coming out.

"Good! Then you know what I am going to ask you to do in exchange for whatever you're asking" the man said with glee.

"God _fucking_ damn it" she swore.

More than the shock of hearing of Pyrrha swearing, Jaune was surprised that there was someone that managed to get Pyrrha truly angry. Her patience was to the extremes when dealing with his own lacking skills in many areas as she trained him and she even took dealing with tolerating Hazel and Lavender with a _smile_.

However all of that was moot because he had no idea what was going on.

"Wait, what's going on?" he looked frantically at one to the other in a repeated cycle.

The red-head groaned while palming her face, " _Master_ craftsman Ash has a weird habit of asking the strangest things to any of his customers. If not for the fact that he's pretty much one of the better craftsmen in the world and is a lot cheaper and affordable to use than most others of his level…"

"I would be dead broke before a week!" he barked out a laugh.

Jaune sweat dropped in a figurative and literal sense, "That's…not a good thing."

"Still, his skills are the real thing and if he wasn't here at Signal right now, I would've led us to seek him out in the end" said Pyrrha, "Despite the flaws in his…personality, his skills are top notched at least and he has a good mind for new designs."

The craftsman, named Ash added his own comment to that, "It takes a pretty good imagination to get an exemplary weapon from some brief random ideas instead of a decent and half-screwed one. Well my best work in assisting students who enrolled in weapon recently was on one young girl who managed to combine a scythe with a bolt-action sniper in design and reality."

"….What?" Jaune deadpanned while waving his arms in a motion that mimicked on what he thought using said weapon looked like, "Isn't a scythe a close range weapon and the sniper a long range one…? How does that work?"

"Girl's semblance is _speed_. Not to mention she seemed to have made it her fighting style to bolt around everywhere by firing her weapon. Perfectly safe and sane as far as I'm concern" Ash waved off any concerns that went unsaid. Of course that may be just because he just didn't care.

"Really…"

Jaune really didn't have anything to say to that to know that the lack of concerns seemed wrong. But considering how most Hunters fought and how much of a boon Aura was in protecting the body from anything bad even when not active…yeah he could really see a young girl speeding around the battlefield without trouble.

-Just like he could see Pyrrha using some ridiculous whip/sword combination of a weapon to casually _slaughter_ Grimm wherever she moved. Not to mention using her semblance on it to be even more effective with it…and guns. Because better Hunter weapons always seem to be one in one way or another.

Exaggerated fighting was a thing in Remnant and was interesting and strange in comparison to the more stream-lined and standard fighting styles of most non-Hunter professions used instead.

In a way, most Hunters were like the heroes in stories in the way they fought and with little fear thanks to their Aura protecting them no matter what.

"Anyway!" Ash clapped his hands in anticipation, "What do you two need for me? You haven't broken your weapon again right?" he gave a pointed look to Pyrrha. She scowled in return without comment.

"No, we're here to commission new weapons for both of us" Jaune said in place of his partner who seemed to have little interest in requesting from the craftsman at the moment. That and he didn't trust his partner to speak politely to not piss the name off right now.

"Hmm…" the craftsman's eye went up and down Jaune's body invasively causing a small shiver down his spine before a look of disgust was made apparent on his face, "Grade 1 _trash_? Well at least you know that you need a _serious_ upgrade from me."

Moving a large number of stuff off his desk, no minding the clatter of items onto the ground, he brought out a large piece of blank paper before giving both of them a pointed look.

Pyrrha spoke up first, "I'll start first then considering Jaune's lack of experience in the area of designing weapons. I prefer if you don't put unnecessary complications into any of our gear if I can help it."

"How droll for you to say that" Ash snorted as he brought out his drawing tools, "Using experimental stuff is half the fun of using new weapons."

She rolled her eyes while placing her hands on her hips, "Then I hope you're glad for a couple of ideas that I've been thinking of for a while."

For the next couple of minutes, Jaune watched as Pyrrha leaned over and started explaining what she wanted her weapon to be like. But more than that, he was surprised of the _speed_ Ash was drawing up designed and modifying them or outright erasing them at any moment. More than that, he could see how the design of her weapon _evolved_ before his eyes on paper.

From the beginning it was a simple sword and whip design that was one and the same. Then it became more with each segment of the blades that made the whip also doubling as individual guns. _That_ took a large number of redrawing attempts as Ash seemed to add in a proportion system in there…somehow.

Of course, the design changed several more times as Pyrrha added in her own personal requests to be capable of _shooting_ the blades out instead of needing to let it extend manually, though still connected to the rest of the weapon via several wires and a magnetic connection system he had no idea worked or not.

In the end, Ash made a total of five different final designs while all different, had small subtle differences in how they each worked. One design was the closet to what you would expect from a 'Sword Whip' where the weapon itself was primarily the sword to which had extensions that allowed it to double as a whip and so forth. The second design was the opposite where it was the whip that was the primary source of the weapon which could extend its range and straighten into a sword that could be better used in melee.

Besides this, there were the one which looked 'blocky' and mechanical the most of all designs but at the same time focused more on the experimental parts of the weapon such as the blade of the weapon sliding into each other to adjust the blade's length. The next weapon design focused the most on the transformation process between each form being almost instantaneous but at the same time resulting in the weapon forms being weaker than the other designs.

Finally the last design was perhaps the strangest one because it was a combination of the other four designs in some way. It was both a sword in that the hilt was of the sword and the blade was flexible enough to count as a whip. It was mechanic in that the blade was folded over each other while sliding…somehow and the gears used to slide the weapon from each form was pretty smooth but still had a slight time delay.

Of course there were many more scrapped designs such was one weapon that was much too large and looked a bit weird when extending the blades. It looked like those flat wire cables were connecting each blade segment…but larger. Sure it worked as a sword whip weapon but it made any sort of other range options impossible.

"So which one you want me to start making?" Ash asked as he wiped sweat off his brow. He rubbed his hands and was grinning madly while notably signalling towards the most experimental weapon he designed.

Pyrrha raised an eyebrow and have him a look of disbelief, "You _do_ realise that I'm going to choose the most balanced weapon of the lot right?"

"Still doesn't change how there's a chance that you would've chosen my choice of weapon" he laughed at her, "Though seriously, in many ways your new weapon will surpass your current one to the point it can't be considered a side-weapon."

"Dual wielding weapons is a thing you know" she rolled her eyes while gripping said main weapon behind her back. She was quite proud of the weapon and didn't like anyone dissing it.

This time Jaune replied, "Aren't you a weapon and shield user first? It would take a _lot_ of training to get used to dual wielding weapons and even after that, training on switching to two or more different fighting styles."

He knew that training to use weapons even as a Hunter and with Aura aiding you was _hard_. There was a reason why rarely any Hunters would have more than two forms to their transformable weapons.

"It'll take time but less than you think Jaune" Pyrrha smiled, "Besides I can always use this new weapon with my shield reducing complications."

Without more words from him, Pyrrha proceeded to question or rather demanded, "Anyway, you'll make the last design you show me okay?"

"No problems lady" the craftsman quickly answered. There seemed to be some sort of fear Jaune could detect but he wasn't sure _why_. Pyrrha was an overall nice person. Why would anyone fear her?

Ash turned to look at Jaune once more with a bit of disgust seeing his equipment, "So what will be your choice of weaponry? I might as well add in the designs for a new shield and armour for free before bleaching my eyes from those abomination of what you think you can call equipment."

"That's awfully nice of you" he carefully thanked. He shuffled a bit in his armour because most other people were at least, kind enough not to comment on his poor quality stuff. Obvious this person didn't care enough to not bluntly tell him that.

Still, all Jaune knew was that he was getting _something_ free.

"Nah, it's more because I can't _stand_ what quality of gear you think is suitable for a Hunter to have" Ash tapped a casually ripped off a part of his already dented armour that had recently gotten a beat up.

Backing off rapidly, Jaune frowned while touching the now more exposed part of his armour before scowling. It was little wonder why Pyrrha didn't seem to like him.

"I figure if I design you some stuff then you can come to me for some more business in the future with upgrading. Pyrrha here might already have a full set of equipment she can rely on but you don't" he reasoned before deciding to add on, "Now I'm going to draw up a series of designs of a single weapon that are upgrades to the one before for your benefit. I doubt you have the lien to pay what I consider to be a complete weapon. Hell I'll do it pro-bono for you."

Hearing that the craftsman was willing to do that for him, Jaune's opinion of Ash increased.

"And of course doing that to allow him to upgrade what you made for him will bring you more profits than just saving up for the 'complete product' to begin with" Pyrrha helpfully added.

Annnd suddenly his opinion decided to dive downwards by a fair margin. Looking back and forth between the two once more, Jaune bit his lips before asking, "How much will Pyrrha's weapon cost then?"

That was something he wanted to know either way. Mainly because he was pretty sure that _anything_ Pyrrha wanted to put in her weapon would be more complicated than his own which meant a higher price tag that he knew his own weapon wouldn't surpass.

"Hmm…that really depends on two factors. What Grade metal she wants me to use and how much I get to make it" Ash started to say while seriously considering it, "Pyrrha's weapon with Grade 5 metals which is the best I can go right now will cost around...8 million lien total. 9 million if she wants me to make it within a week in a rush."

Jaune froze at the number.

"That's…a lot of lien being thrown around" muttered Jaune in astonishment.

Just to reference his shock, the average household of four can survive on an annual consumption of tens of thousands of lien on a poorer side of life in the countryside to a few hundreds of thousands of lien for the richest families living in a capital city.

The amount of money being spent on this weapon was enough to sustain that family for at _least_ a decade and that's when you're trying to live as luxurious as possible. More than that, Jaune despite being a Hunter for a decent amount of time hadn't seen anyone spend that much money for a single item.

Hell, he couldn't comprehend how much money that was. _Millions_ , he realised. It was an insane amount to use in a single instant. Even from the reward from the Grimm invasion really only gave him around half a million lien and he thought that _that_ was a lot.

It was no wonder why Pyrrha seemed so casual in trying to pay for things for him before. A couple hundred thousand liens really didn't matter to her when she had that amount of lien to thrown around when she wanted

As Jaune's jaw dropped in shock, the craftsman ignored the blonde and continued to speak not bothering to wait for his brain to reboot, "Well as a comparison, Pyrrha's Milo would cost a solid 5 million lien with the Grade 4 metals it was made with."

The craftsman turned to look at the amazon, "Upgrading _that_ weapon will cost a couple million liens to get it from Grade 4 to Grade 5 by the way. Adding a new feature to the weapon would cost a significant amount of money too, depending on how it affects the rest of the weapon."

It was at that point that Pyrrha spoke up, "But to begin with, _most_ of the initial costs on getting a customised weapon are in the costs to designs as well as the costs to the metals used considering the most Hunters don't have the skills to design anything too complicated to make nor have the proper metals on hand to give over to assemble."

"How many different types are metals are needed to make a weapon anyway?" Jaune curiously inquired.

"Simple one need only two or three, while the more complex need at least a dozen or more metals" Pyrrha shrugged while looking away towards the set of ores that were lined on a bookshelf for reasons Jaune could not tell.

Wasn't he afraid of thieves?

"Yep, while civilian weapons can just use iron or whatever metals they want to make a decent weapon for them, _Hunter_ weapons require combining the many properties of many different metals to ensure that they are _perfect_. Every gear and screw needs to fit together and most importantly, _everything_ needs to react to Aura and be capable of withstand the wrath of Grimm without breaking" the bearded man seemed to croon as he talked.

He paused for a few moments before snapping out of it and coughing, "Still, half the costs of a weapon to customers like you are from the metals themselves while a third of the remaining costs are in the designs which are made so that they don't explode on Hunters in any way. Hunters tend to be in a murderous mood when their weapons or the weapons of their friends or even enemies explode on them because of a design flaw."

Taking out another stack of blank paper, Ash started to recheck his pens and other drawing tools, "A lot of new Hunters goes with their own new shitty designs in making their weapons causing a lot to die on the field when something goes wrong" he shrugged, "That's why _most_ would leave it in the hands of professionals."

Jaune raised an eyebrow to how he…disinterested Ash seemed at that last point.

"Basically there's a lot of surcharge in using craftsmen in designing your stuff instead of making it as well as a certain level of safety in doing so compared to making a personal weapon yourself from scratch" Pyrrha sighed at the mention of the deaths.

Ash however seemed undisturbed, grinning, "How _else_ do you expect for people in my profession to make a generous profit. Plus anything you Hunters do get inflated beyond hell so you can keep up with the costs without practically running the industries into the ground."

"So how much will a weapon for me cost from you then?" Jaune asked being a bit irritated right now. The time it took for this man to design Pyrrha's weapon was over an hour though it could be blamed on how complex the weapon seemed to be. He preferred not to wait that amount of time but he had to.

He wasn't sure with the amount of money he had, he could afford it…without his partner picking up on the rest of the costs that is.

And that is something he would never allow if he could. It became a point of independence for Jaune in that proved to himself that he didn't need to completely rely on his partner for everything and was taking complete advantage of her without remorse.

"Depends on the design which like I said depends on the complexity of how everything works and what grade of stuff you wish to have" said Ash, "Sometimes weapons that are heavily focused on shape-shifting require higher grade metals for the gears used to shift everything while others just need the exterior to be more reinforced."

"Making Pyrrha's weapon will take a while and I really doubt you have as much cash as the lady has to throw around. A super complicated weapon design that's a liege above what other Hunters your age have will cost millions at least" he added after a moment of thought.

"Though it's always surprising to see someone as young as a certain someone to pay so much for a weapon" he continued with a good deal of grumbling in his tone.

As both males looked at Pyrrha, said female coughed, "Sponsors pay a lot for my image…and winning the Minstrel tournament also netted me a million liens each time I won."

"Cool" Jaune appeared to dismiss it easily catching the look of guilt towards him.

However in the inside, he was a bit shocked and dare he say jealous? Although he knew that winning such a tournament was especially difficult for anyone, doing so four times in a row which meant that she won the first time at _thirteen_ was impossible for him.

Therefore he didn't dwell on it.

The next few minutes was spent with Jaune and Ash with Pyrrha adding her own comments in to what kind of weapon he wanted. In the end, there were four different versions of the same weapon that he wanted which was apparently called a gunblade which was what it was literally named after.

Instead of being a weapon that shifted from gun and sword modes completely like some Hunter weapons, the influences of either mode are made apparent in each other. The gun mode was also a sword in some small ways and the sword mode was also a gun in the same small ways. Incidentally, they cost a lot less than weapons that completely transformed into other forms.

The first version was the simplest being akin the switch and blade knife but enlarged to be a sword with a bolt-action gun addition working when the blade is folded back. More than that, there is a switching mechanism that allows it to switch modes without needing to manually do it thankfully. Simple, easy to use, it was a decent weapon and a good upgrade to what he had right now.

And considering that what he had right now was essentially an ordinary sword that anyone could buy, that wasn't saying much.

" _This_ first version is going to be the costly though only because I'm making it from scrap…well knowing some of the features of the later versions, they might as well be all separate weapons" Ash warned but with pride, "Though thankfully it'll mainly be due to replacing some parts with higher Grade metals. However, this first version of the weapon will come with Grade 3 metals causing the costs to be 500 000 lien."

That…was a lot of money.

Well not a lot _lot_ but rather a lot to his wallet…which didn't have that much cash when he compared it to what some richer Hunters may have.

"And I'm being nice here and didn't add on my personal design costs which would've potentially doubled the costs" Ash 'helpfully' added. That didn't help his nerves at all.

Thinking about how much money he had, Jaune decided nodding his head and agreeing to whatever was being said was the best option. He could spare that much money even though it was almost his entire fortune currently.

"Is it possible to make the weapon with Grade 2 metals instead?" Pyrrha asked suddenly. Helpful as always in asking the questions he couldn't.

"You could, but the costs-benefits won't be worth it. It'll be less durable, need more maintenance and be way more dangerous with a weapon that isn't as sharp as it could be" Ash advised with a surprised look, "And it still won't lower the costs when you want to upgrade the weapon. In fact, it makes it more expensive because you'll need to upgrade the metals to Grade 3 either way. The third and fourth versions of the weapon will both up the Grade of metal used in core areas as well."

Seeing that both heard him, he continued as he held a different sheet of paper, "Now the second version of the weapon is where it _really_ starts looking like a proper Hunter weapon."

Said second version upgrades the weapon so he would be capable of firing even when the blade was out which was basically a secondary lower calibre gun added into the weapon carefully next to both side of the blade. The larger calibre gun from when the blade was folded away from the barrow was to be upgraded to be more powerful along with other upgrades such as a better blade to the limits of Grade 3 metals and an extra compartment for more bullets for both guns.

However what seemed to be most important is that the weapon is a lot thicker than before. Why? There are more armoured parts to ensure that the chances of something damaging the mechanisms of the weapon is minimised compared to before.

While Jaune was sure that he could last for a long time with only the first version of the weapon that was designed for him; having the more improved versions of his weapons would be useful to say. That and he had a feeling that there would be a lot less repairing if he did upgrade.

"This one will cost 500 000 lien to upgrade from the first version" said Ash, "The reason why it costs as much as the first version of the weapon in costs despite being a 'mere' upgrade is the difference between a skeleton of a person and a healthy one. Lots more parts added, more durable and more effective with some extra features. Any complaints?"

The craftsman looked at Pyrrha.

"…No, that sounds reasonable" she carefully said.

Hearing that, Jaune nodded trusting in her, "Seems fine so far."

"Good because things will only become more expensive from here and I won't have you complaining then if not now."

Moving on like Ash said, the third version was especially where it got interesting….and more expensive.

It would allow different types of dust bullets to be loaded and fired from the weapon as well the weapon supporting a second blade for the weapon as well as dust enhanced blades. More than that, there would be modifications to the shape of the weapon so that both sword and gun mode of the gunblade was more streamlined when it shape-shifting into both mode reducing the time needed to transform the weapon.

"This version will cost a million liens to upgrade to though it's mostly because the metals required are Grade 4 in order to improve the core parts of the weapon" said Ash while deciding to add, "At this point, you'll see the benefits of aura conducting metals mainly for the sake of the dust related options to the weapon. What most craftsmen don't consider is that after a certain point, having a more durable weapon that is unbreakable isn't as good as a weapon that can conduct Aura better which means it can _hurt_ the stronger Grimm even if it is more liable to break than otherwise."

"Better to have a broken weapon with dead Grimm than a whole weapon and dead Hunter" muttered Pyrrha grimly.

"Yep. For this upgrade the weapon will be a 50-50 split between durable type and aura conducting type metals for the sword of the weapon. More than that, I'm changing part of the shape-shifting mechanism and the shape of each mode to be more…separate than combined which makes the weapon more like a gunblade and large gun mode than just gun and sword modes" he said.

"Is there an actual reason for that?" Jaune asked.

"Not really. But people seem to find that having weapons be separate in different forms makes it less likely that a hit somewhere would screw with the weapon's other mode" shrugged Ash.

Jaune hummed in confirmation to that and took a closer look to the designs in front of him.

He noticed how much more the weapon designed had changed from its original version. While the first version of the weapon was _really_ simple, using the least number of mechanics to do what it does which change a bit in the second version, in the third version of the weapon, everything is ramped up.

Instead of the large simple gears, straps and other things he couldn't identified, there were easily _dozens_ of smaller versions of the same mechanical parts which all rotated and connected to each other in ways he couldn't explain to do the same thing…but _better_.

More than that, rather than one design of a single weapon, it looked as if there were two different weapons. The sword mode was a bit longer than before but noticeably thinner while the gun mode while obviously shorter was a lot thicker for even larger rounds that he was starting to mistake it as a hand-cannon at this point.

He could only tell that they were same and one weapon that switch from both forms because he knew of that fact. Otherwise he was quite clueless on how one went to another. In that regard, the weapon was quite impressive and he was a bit surprised that it 'only' took a million liens to get this upgrade.

And that was not even getting into the new features of the weapon.

"What's a Dust Blade?" asked Jaune seeing the design. It's the first time he had heard of such a thing let along seen it. He definitely heard of Dust bullets and how the more potent of them could inflict lesser effects of what a Dust User could do in a small scale but not of Dust Blades.

Pyrrha looked down at the design carefully before frowning, "Are you sure that something like that should be added into the design Ash?"

"Yeah don't worry" the craftsman waved such concerns off, "It's not like he _needs_ to have to use it. The option is just there when he wants it because there's more technology being developed for that type of weapon now. Although not many people want to use them still unless they have a lot of spares or are skilled enough to _slice_ without breaking the blade."

"Then why include this design?"

"Because Dust Blades are _powerful_ " he stated, "They are literally metal that had been infused greatly with Dust to the point that even swinging them will cause the effects of the Dust to appear _without_ Aura making it even more powerful."

"And that's not even considering what happens when you combine it with the variable vibration swords" he muttered, "Damn woman is a monster and yet decides to use a monster weapon. Heh, my best work yet."

"Vibration sword?" questioned Pyrrha who obviously overheard him.

"Ah" Ash looked surprised, "Yeah, those are a real _useful_ weapon. Think of chainsaws but as thin and easily to swing as a normal sword. Deadly but _expensive_ to make. I think I'm among a dozen people who have the _knowledge_ to make them, not that I want them to exist on mass."

The middle aged man shuddered at the thought, "While perfectly fine to use on Grimm, it's even more effective on _people_. Banned for those without permits for good reason. Anyway the designs for the Dust Blade also come with an extra sword blade slot. While there's no mechanism to switch them in battle, it's easy enough to take out manually and attach if the primary one breaks though not in battle."

"…That's handy" Jaune said after thinking about it.

"I know. I designed it for that reason" Ash rolled his eyes before flipping to the next design; showing it off.

"And this _final_ version of the weapon I've designed for you" the craftsman said proudly dropping a small set of paper on the desk….which was strange because while the previous designs were on a singular or few sheets of paper…

"This looks-" Jaune started to say before trying to take a better look to make sense of it all.

"-I really have no idea what's going on here. Most of the lines go all over each other and I can barely see how it all connects together" he deadpanned pushing the design papers to Pyrrha.

Hearing that, his partner took a look as well with grace.

She blinked seeing the designs before saying with honesty, "That's…impressive. Most people would just use a hologram to showcase what a weapon would look like. And I thought you were already old-school for drawing your designs on paper. There must be…a dozen in depth pages of how everything works"

"Bah. Doing it 'old-school' is much easier in correct any mistakes and gives it all the more personal touch without any old program telling you that a combination of parts together had been 'copyrighted' and can't be used" sneered Ash while taking back the design papers.

"And this way, you can make stuff without resorting to any kind of program that may get patched over by either the A.U.R.A or A.R.C systems" said Jaune realising how reliant people in general were towards both systems.

He mentally shrugged when Ash took the papers back. It wasn't like he could tell what was going on without spending minutes trying to fit everything together. It was very clear that this final completed version of the weapon was something Ash started off one before 'degrading' down to the other ones.

"The Schnee family really has a chokehold on what gets through and what gets blocked when it comes to programs on both systems. Of course they can't get away with _everything_ but it's the small things like 'protected' creativity and advertisement that really puts a strangle hold on everything."

"Anyway, here's a more simplified model of the final product" said Ash giving him another sheet of paper for his benefit.

"Thanks" he nodded in thanks.

The fourth and final version of the weapon would completely overhauls everything as far as Jaune could see. If he hadn't seen the other design pages then he would've mistaken it as simply an appearance change that continued from the last version. No, _everything_ changed to the point it was practically a different weapon with the same core.

Some noticeable changes included the blade of the sword being able to double in length which was done by hollowing the inside of the thickened blade so it could slide out. Another change also included turning the sword into a _rifle barrel_ to fire off like Pyrrha's own weapon. Adding on the double side guns in this mode, which meant he could fire off three bullets at a time.

The side sword slot was expanded to include a third blade capacity which seemed handy but what was most impressive was the mechanism to switch the blades was installed allowing him the possibility to switching to different types of Dust Blades in battle or at least switching to one that wasn't broken in battle. Sometime later, he would need to consider commission some spares in the future but that's time away.

The gun mode of the weapon was also upgraded. If the previous version somewhat felt like a hand-cannon than this one would be one. Apparently Ash decided the normal heavy fire mode that the weapon provided wasn't enough and added a _second_ gun mode to transform into literal hand-cannon that folded back and expanded the barrel even larger. However fitting ammo that size was nigh impossible in large quantities and the designs only allowed a maximum of three shots before reload. That and in the normal gun mode the barrel of the weapon now extends more for better aim with better rate of fire and has more ammo to fire in though surprisingly no automatic fire mode.

"This will cost 3 million liens in the end to upgrade from its third version. Take the fact that my skills and heart are just that good that the costs aren't ramped to 5 million liens with all the extra features I graciously added" Ash finally said with a smug look but frowned after a moment, "There's a lot of metals I have to use to make it complete though."

"What's the problem?" Jaune asked reactively.

"The weapon requires Grade 5 metals minimum to make it work" Ash simply replied, "But that's not the biggest problem. I _also_ need Grade 6 metals to make sure everything is perfectly stable without imbalance in the strain when it takes a hit or switches modes. Grimm materials would be a solution but…

Jaune paused to another term he didn't know and did what he did best especially when such habits were helped developed by Pyrrha. He asked questions.

"…And is that a problem? What's the problem of Grimm material? And what is it?" he asked.

"Grimm materials are basically materials that come from Grimm in the bare sense. The white plating from their masks and armour, their furs and in some rarer cases, their eyes and hearts" his partner explained with a grimaced at the end.

"Those materials are _extremely_ rare to get and only because they only drop from powerful Grimm of at least A rank in threat" she continued to say before frowning, "However I see no parts of the weapon design that requires it that badly."

"You're forgetting about how the blade of the weapon changes in this new design" Ash grunted, "Grade 5 metal is fine and all but in order to get the blade extension to work seamlessly, it needs to be a thinner which leads to problems in durability which leads to problems that can be fixed with Grade 6 metals without making it weaker."

"And Signal can only forge up to Grade 5 metals" Pyrrha realised, "And that leads to possibly needing Grimm materials to push the metals to Grade 6 or higher without using a better forge."

Jaune looked surprised to that knowledge and asked, "But how does that work exactly? I mean with using Grimm parts to upgrade metal grades. This isn't common knowledge as far as I know."

The craftsman didn't bother to hold back on the explanation and said, "Not many would know about since it's an uncommon method of forging and is primitive compared to what we have now. Back in the days when metals weren't that good to work with, Forgers and Craftsmen would combine Grimm parts into weapons to make them harder and stronger than before. That and there was an added bonus of the weapon capable of slicing through Grimm armour make it seem obvious to use."

"There are only two well three negatives. One is that any weapons that use Grimm materials in it makes it nil almost impossible to channel aura through, second is that Grimm are _attracted_ to such weapons and third is that the weapons are useless against Grimm that have stronger armour than the weapon's edge. And since you can't channel Aura through them…"

The results were left unsaid but everyone in the room knew the results.

"Besides, it's just much easier to use a more powerful forge or use better ores to make higher grade metals most of the time these days. That and you can simply purchase higher grade metals even if it's more expensive to transfer them across a continent" Ash finished.

Jaune deadpanned considering _why_ this option was considered before anything else "…And you want to add this material into the final product of my weapon because?"

"Maintenance issues and I can't see you as someone who will be able to dish out the cash to buy Grade 6 metals. Grimm materials are just an alternative and are dead useful in Grimm clearance missions when every Grimm in out for your blood" replied Ash, "But I can always purchase the metals for you."

"Which will basically cost me a lot more lien then" the deadpan continued and almost turned into a scowl.

"Pretty much" Ash shrugged, "Since you can't comprehend the costs of higher grade metals…I'll give you a run down on how much each Grade of metals cost."

A pause.

"Note that after Grade 5, Aura conducting metals cost around 30% more than normal durable metals for the reasons I said before. And as a further reference, Dust in each of their Grades tends to cost less than the metals in the lower grades by around half or more but several times more in the higher grades due to rarity and restrictions place by the Kingdoms and Guild."

Grade 1 Metal: 5 000~ Lien

Grade 2 Metal: 50 000~ Lien

Grade 3 Metal: 250 000~ Lien

Grade 4 Metal: 500 000~ Lien

Grade 5 Metal: 2 500 000~ Lien

Grade 6 Metal: 5 000 000~ Lien

Grade 7 Metal: 25 000 000~ Lien

Grade 8 Metal: 50 000 000~ Lien

"What about Grade 9 and 10 metals?" asked Jaune before seeing the prices again, "Are these prices for a whole weapon? They seem really pricey for just metals..."

"Those are _heavily_ restricted and you can't put of price on them. Even the Forges in Atlas which are frankly the best ones in Remnant can't make anything beyond Grade 8 Metals normally and in small amounts to boot" replied Ash before answering the second question, "And these are the average prices for metals for a single weapon. The price I gave you is without the upgrade with Grade 6 stuff. You can think of the extra costs if I tell you that the designs go from Grade 4 metals to Grade 6."

Jaune's eyebrows twitched. There was a ten times differences between the two grades of metals!

"Also, how come the prices of weapons seem to be _double_ the costs of the metals? I mean, I get that hiring craftsmen seems to be expensive but after a certain point, shouldn't the amount paid be…less than it actually is?" his frustrations bed through a bit as he asked those questions.

"Pricing rule that has been in place for a _long_ time" Ash elaborated, "Craftsmen are paid in the price of the value of the metal they use which popped up when Hunters were paying _really_ low prices to craftsmen and everyone pretty much decided to strike resulting in screwing everyone over" shrugged Ash, "Good news is that everything has a set price now, bad news is that negotiating for anything higher is frankly impossible."

"Though you can negotiate _down_ prices" interrupted Pyrrha.

Ash sent another glare to her before adding, "Yes, craftsmen can also work for free if they wish. There are no laws on that. However, you need to note that if rumours of you trying to haggle prices down too much and especially using threats, well services will be hard to come by later."

"Got it" Jaune seriously said.

The man took a look at the young Huntsman before seemingly accepting that answer.

"Well anyway, I'm already giving you a discount on my services because upgrading _should_ cost a lot more than how much the metals cost but I doubt a poor brat like you can afford me in time before I starve to death" continued Ash without a beat.

"That and he already has a bad reputation among Signal Hunters of his personality and habits of scamming people when he can" Pyrrha pipped up happily causing Ash to scowl and glare at her once again.

"Huh, really?" said Jaune in fear and shock at such a thing, "He won't scam us right?"

"Not at all" his partner continued to _smile_ , "He won't ever make such a mistake right?"

She turned to the craftsman and gave him a pointed look. At times like this, Jaune always seemed surprise how Pyrrha can actually hold a grudge of any time. It was little wonder that he felt that she was suffering from some of bipolar disorder and was just managing it very well.

" _Of course_ " Ash smiled though it didn't even attempt to reach his eyes before sarcastically asking to Jaune, "Guess what a person with a metal controlling semblance can do in a workshop _filled with metal_? She's a craftsman's worse nightmare when she wants."

"…."

"Anyway let's start working on your shield and armour. The shield should be easily enough to make and you can use another craftsman to upgrade the metals used in it. The armour however is something I recommend to come to me for seeing that I doubt you have enough money to pay for everything at once and not many are willing to work on others' work that had been already partly completed...unless said previous craftsman died."

Ash started drawing rapidly.

Compared to his weapon, the shield and armour that he was apparently getting designed for free was much simpler. His shield was circular like Pyrrha's and might include options to combine with his sword in the future but he wasn't sure on that. But for now, it was a collapsible shield that size of his head that sprang out into its length in all directions which left it a size large than his partner's.

"This actually looks impressive" Jaune commented at the design.

"I agree" Pyrrha nodded seeing that the design was partly based off her own shield in many minor ways.

Ash took the compliments with grace and said, "This shield will cost…100 000 lien I suppose. Made from Grade 2 stuff, it's a decent shield and I won't bore you with the costs on upgrading it or the possibility of adding extra features to it since other craftsmen can work on it instead of me."

"Eh?"

"I'm a _weapon_ craftsman. Just because I _can_ make designs for shields and armours and make them doesn't mean I actually specialise with them compared to weapons" he replied with much disinterest.

After saying that, he started drawing up some basic designs for the armour. In all, from what Jaune could tell from the sketches, it looked pretty good…for rough sketches that aren't as precise as everything else he drew.

The armour was a bit more complicated than the shield even though it had no transforming functions. The whole armour came in 7 pieces. Chest-plate, shoulder-plate, arm-plate, gloves, thigh-skirt, leggings and boots.

"I suggest you buy this design of the armour in three parts being chest-plate, _upper_ body and _lower_ body" Ash lined it out for him, "Each should cost 100 000 lien using Grade 2 Metals."

"The costs will triple for Grade 3 metal if you're looking to upgrade. Also if you can, buy some Aura-weaved clothing with this design to complete the look" he added another design to the pair of Hunters, "It might be costly but it would add that extra layer of protection without needing to upgrade the armour which could cost _way_ more."

After a pause he added, "That and the complete look actually looks cool in a way I suppose."

Both Hunters took a look to the design and found that it actually look _really_ cool in a medieval knight way but twisted a bit to be similar to a mechanical human suit in a way that some higher ranked Hunters wore.

"Thank you very much" Jaune bowed. Such a thing that was an _image_ is _extremely_ important for any Hunter to have. This combined with a personal emblem that could be completely new or inherited by family basically acted as an identification tool for Hunters.

Impersonators were few mainly because Hunters took offense to such a crime and when Hunters didn't like something that wasn't Grimm…well they don't survive for long.

Even Pyrrha has this cool amazon warrior look with her armour. He in comparison was decking out in normal hoodies and jeans under chest-armour. He practically looked like a civilian guardsman being escorted by a proper Hunter in many ways.

That was a horrible feeling to have and experience.

"Anyway besides the upgrades to your new weapon, if you want a full set of equipment to be commissioned to you, you need…900 000 liens in total" said Ash offhandedly making the calculations for him.

Jaune looked at the total amount of money he had minus the amount he needed for food and other supplies.

…600 000 lien.

At best, he could get the weapon or he could get the shield and armour completely. But then, he would need to save a lot more money that would take a long time in order to pay for the rest of what he wanted.

"Jaune, you _know_ that I am more than prepared to help you pay. Think of it as a loan without interest" said Pyrrha after seeing the look on his face.

Or he could take a loan from someone _not_ Pyrrha and spend months paying it back.

Ash snorted on what she said seeing the look on Jaune's face, "Lady, a man needs his pride. The stupid and stubborn _needs_ something they won't bend on. Otherwise they'll become weak in mind. The idiotic fool here seems to be clinging on the fact that he doesn't need you to pay for his stuff."

"Hey" said Jaune weakly.

Rubbing his beard, the craftsman continued, "Though how much money _do_ you have to spend on equipment? Either you've been saving a lot or you're as poor as you look. No offence of course."

"600 000 in total" Jaune admitted with a grumble.

The amount he had in total hadn't increased that much since a month ago mainly because he hadn't done any big missions that paid a lot. Hunting Grimm and cashing in the kills was much safer than some missions that had higher risks but more rewards.

That and he had to pay for any expenses on the travel as well.

"Hmm…300 000 lien more from the full set of equipment I can make you. But only 100 000 more lien if you go with only the chest-piece from the armour set or nothing more if you forgo either the shield or armour" said Ash slightly impressed the kid had that much cash for his age. Normally only those at C rank would commission equipment like this.

Part of Jaune _really_ wanted to forgo one part of the equipment set that would define him in the future. However he knew that doing so meant putting himself at risk. Armour wasn't essential for a Hunter since Aura deflected most damage but it was still a wall of protection that would save his life when it came to it.

…If you discounted his semblance but no one was going to rely on it if they knew what its activation condition is.

"That amount of lien isn't that much when you consider the rewards from D and C rank missions Jaune. Might I suggest that you order the weapon and shield now and wait before paying for them so we can do some missions to make up the costs for the armour?" suggested Pyrrha seeing that her partner wouldn't want her to pay for it for him.

"So we'll take few weeks or so to gather the remaining amount of money I need in the end?" wondered Jaune. It could work. They would need to take some riskier missions but it could work.

They would certainly need to find and kill a large number of C rank threats to make it in time though…

He couldn't see any missions that would have a large output within a week without it being highly difficult or dangerous in some way that wasn't taken by other Hunters in the region. The benefit of living in the countryside as a Hunter was the larger number of good missions to find. Here…not so much.

"Can we pay you after the weapons are finished?"

Looking over to Ash to see if he was fine with that suggestion, the bearded man shrugged indifferently, "As long as I get the lien in the end. Though might I suggest tackling a personal mission for me instead of one of the Signal official ones if you want to make more lien?"

"Why?" Jaune questioned, much more suspicious now.

"Signal has surcharges involved when you use it to place missions via them like the Guild and that's _after_ you take in the Guild's own tax for said mission. The way missions work is that the commissioner such as myself needs to pay a certain level of tax of the rewards off any missions we make. The Guild, Kingdom and here, also Signal makes a profit off that. They also make a _second_ profit off Hunters who do the missions" explained Ash.

"Hey I have a mission with a reward of 1000 lien. Both the Guild and Kingdom takes a total of 20% in tax meaning I need to dish put 1200 lien to commission a mission of that value. Then the Hunters complete that mission and get the reward of 1000 lien. But then tax happens and only gets 800 liens while both Guild and Kingdom gets 20% of that. This results in both commissioner and Hunter _both_ losing out on 20% of the reward money" he continued.

He stopped for a moment before starting again, "This leads to Personal Missions being a thing. Cutting the middle man, the Guild, Kingdom and in this case also Signal out so we don't get taxed. Saves money on both sides and also hides the fact to other people I need something by making a mission out of it."

That…makes sense in a way. The Guild and Kingdom took taxes to ensure that all missions would have the correction information in them and that Hunters would be rewards appropriated properly. Something else is that the Guild actually pays Hunters more from their own pockets if the mission is beyond what is expected.

It also made sense that a place like Signal which was a hub for Hunters would take its own tax as well. Not only that, the tax helped funds various other benefits the Guild or Signal provides like health insurance. But to bypass that meant…

"…Isn't that illegal?" wondered Jaune. He heard nothing about 'personal' missions but he was pretty sure the Guild would've locked down on any activities that threaten them like that.

"Not at all" Ash disagreed, "It just has a _lot_ more risks on both sides and can't be easily traced as 'official' missions that are all recorded automatically via A.U.R.A. The commissioners can scam the Hunters and the Hunters can literally rob the commissioner if they don't feel satisfied with the mission rewards. It's a really grey area."

That basically meant while it wasn't outright banned or illegal, it was still something that wasn't recommended.

"So…what'll we have to do if we accept?" he asked.

"And what will Jaune get out of this if he accepts?" Pyrrha also asked. Jaune was a bit surprised that his partner would ask that but considering it was likely he would accept whatever request Ash would have…

Hopefully it would be a good thing.

"Basically I want ores" stated Ash, "Signal is started to run out of them. The next shipment of ores for Signal is a month away and wasting that time isn't worth I to me. I already have a contact in one of the towns a couple days away but without Hunter escorts, chances are that 'bandits' will come and take the ores away."

…And that basically meant that chances are, the same people who were contracted by Ash was likely to run away with the ores themselves instead of delivering it. This of course leads to whether or not them having said ore was legal.

But he rather not dwell on such things…even if it was a bit wrong morally.

"And by 'protecting' them to you, we get paid" Jaune concluded with a nod from the man.

"Naturally, scamming either of you is a bad idea" the craftsman agreed as well, "If you do this for me then I'll commission the shield or one third of that armour that I designed for you _free_. That's me paying you 100 000 lien outright without strings on my part."

It seemed like a good deal. 100 000 lien was basically a C rank mission and a _good_ one to that without much risk aside from preventing some minor thieves from getting the items of interest.

 _Too_ good in fact…

"…What's the catch?" Pyrrha suspiciously asked, "Any small amount of ore can't cause you to pay us big time like that."

Jaune agreed especially when he knew that most people would use the Kingdom sparse but effective transportation trains to transfer said ores to them. Hiring people to manually do the same wasn't worth the costs and risks.

"That's for me to know and you _not_ to know. Plausible deniability if anything goes wrong" said Ash before pausing at the glare Pyrrha had before correcting quickly, "There's a couple of more important ores among the package."

He sighed, "Some are rumoured to be capable of being smelted into Grade 6 and 7 Metals with the Forge in _Signal_. I want first pickings of those ores instead of competing with the leftovers of those with pockets with the Headmaster here when they eventually come a month later."

"Are you sure those rumours aren't false?" Jaune frowned. That was also a bit too good to be true.

"Doesn't matter" Ash denied, "As a craftsman, I would rather get them early and be wrong than get them later and fall behind my rivals in this place. I have to pay a lot in rent to stay in this Academy so anything to make my life easier is welcomed."

"And that is why you're risking a lot or rather a little in costs for this. Not to mention of the rewards _if_ the ores have special enough characteristics to mould in especially higher grade metals…" concluded Pyrrha.

From what Jaune could tell, this was a pretty big deal.

One rank higher than another in terms of Grades of quality of metal was extremely important and there was a clear line of value on each grade. That and the fact that Signal was capable of only outputting up to Grade 5 metals meant that if the rumours of this ore was true then…

"I want to up the rewards" Jaune demanded calmly. Seeing the raised eyebrow that said 'go on' from the craftsman he continued, " _If_ the ores don't get the results that you desire, the proposed reward of the free equipment is fine considering the risks involved. But _if_ the ores does give you the results, I want the reward to include another 100 000 lien which is basically another equipment of choice from you."

"…."

Tension was evident in the room before Ash let out a choke of a laugh, "Ha! At least you're a _bit_ humble in what you want. Others would've demanded for a full set of equipment and perhaps a lot more…"

He paused.

"… _But don't fuck me over or I'll hunt you down until your last breath_ " Aura and pressure poured out of the aged man in _waves_ making Jaune choke on his breath for a few moments before it disappeared as it came.

Even Pyrrha seemed a bit shocked to this.

"Now…" the craftsman said, "I'll start on _both_ your weapons for now considering that's the surest thing I know you two will want. You two need to deposit half the costs as collateral as per standard to the Craftsman Contract. That's a solid 4 million lien from you Pyrrha and 250 000 lien from you Jaune."

 **[Accept Transfer of 250 000 Lien from Jaune Arc's A.U.R.A Account towards Signal Craftsman: Ash to start Craftsman Contract? Y/N?]**

Jaune accepted and he was poorer by 250 000 lien.

 **[Craftsman Contract**

· **For a deposit of 250 000 Lien from Jaune Arc, a weapon detailed between the two parties will be made.**

· **For a completed job, the remaining 250 000 Lien will be transferred from Jaune Arc to Craftsman: Ash.**

· **Failure on either parties will result in neither weapon to Jaune Arc nor remaining Lien to Craftsman: Ash**

· **Complete failure to provide a weapon from Craftsman: Ash will results in deposit being returned by Craftsman: Ash and fine equal to half the value of the weapon to Craftsman: Ash]**

After confirming that the amount was transferred to Ash as well as the contract, the man started to gather the designs but Pyrrha stopped him for a moment to ask, "Can we get a copy of the designs sent to both of us? I might want to look them over later on."

"…Sure" he grunted before leaving to complete his work by the time that the duo would come back to him. However he had some last words for them.

"Remember. A Hunter isn't defined by their weapon but rather the weapon _completes_ them. Be reassured that I'll make the best possible weapons you can use. Also don't accept a mission near the place. Easier to cover our tracks if you don't."

The two Hunters also left at the same time. Jaune made a note that coming back in the Forge was as hot as ever and wondered once more of the point of having such a room between everyone and where the craftsmen were.

-o-

"So…you're getting a mission for us?"

"Yep" Pyrrha happily called out lazily scrolling through the rather large mission list Signal has.

She was aiming to find something that would be where they will be going, the mining town basically, or somewhere nearby. They had some time to look through the list. Or at least, time after taking a better look at what Signal has to offer.

But right now, both of them were relaxing on a bench…somewhere. He had already went to the Skill Library that Signal had to offer and was found disappointed. While the catalogue of skills was _impressive_ in quantity, it was fairly lacking in quality in what he was searching for.

Passive skills were always a good thing to have more of. Unfortunately Signal didn't really have any that interested him that much or were too inefficient in what they did. He had no need for any movement passive skills, so he looked for ones that would improve other aspects of his body.

…And most of them ended up being ones that 'improved' his body in either too minor ways or were just useless to him. Having an iron grip that was several times as strong as normal would be useful, but it couldn't be turned off unlike if done with Aura. Moreover Jaune had found little on ways to improve anything but raw muscle, skin and bones.

Ironically enough, despite the quantity, most of the methods to do so were awfully similar to each other. Do _x_ action in order to put pressure on your body in a certain way to strengthen them. He had found that the most 'effective' ones seem to be the ones that had the most extreme training though had a greater risk to ruin a body than others.

Jaune wasn't as confident or masochistic to do _that_ kind of training a second time.

He still had phantom pains in his legs from his training to learn his movement based passive skill. There _had_ to be a better more painless way of training passive skills than of self-inflicted mutilation to hope for the best. He knew there were training methods for certain passive skills that were mostly 'painless' which benefited by the fact that the process of gaining a passive skill usually took months and years.

However, there are always risks in even training the most minor passive skill. _Especially_ the ones that are rumoured to be 'painless'. Just because you weren't painfully aware that your body was changing didn't mean he wasn't.

This was also why Jaune had a feeling that Signal held their truly more effective and useful passive skills for their students to use instead of outsiders. No point in strengthening others that won't contribute to you directly. There is also no reason to allow a few to get killed or crippled by making a presumption and mistake without supervision.

Because of this, aside from taking the sights, he really didn't have much to do in Signal. Though he could try looking up some Active Skills to see if they had anything interesting for him to learn…an illusion based skill to help hide him would be bountiful to have in a crisis.

Perhaps another movement based skill that would allow him to stick on walls.

Still, there was something wrong of seeing Pyrrha outright ignoring someone else's request in some form, even if they were going to do it anyway.

"Didn't Ash tell us not to-" he started to say before being interrupted.

"Yes, but I don't really care what he has to say. He's one of the more dishonest people I've met Jaune and just because he didn't want use to accept another mission in the area to help cover his tracks doesn't mean we have to" said Pyrrha while casually selecting a mission nearby the location of the mining town that they would have to head to.

"Isn't that kind of…dishonest?"

"Not as dishonest as trying to go around your employer for some profits" she countered, "And it would be more suspicious if we were in the area without a mission to lead us there if anything went wrong. Hunters are kept in check for a lot of things they do to ensure they are not undermining any stability in an area."

Jaune hummed in agreement to that but still said, "He at least seemed honest in his work though. That and he seemed to have given us a discount on the prices."

She snorted to that before explaining, "Actually, that was a _lie_. Only the greediest craftsman would charge the amount Ash said. The actually surcharge in using craftsmen is actually around 20% of the metals' values rather than 100%."

"Really? So basically he's charging us a lot more than if we gone to another craftsmen?" he gave her a questioning look, "Why use him then?"

"The unfortunate fact is that Ash _is_ the best craftsman in Vale. Not to mention that any other craftsmen with his skill level has a rather long waiting time to using them. And further add in the fact that it is more likely that they will charge just as much or even _more_ , it's better to use the evil you know than the one you don't" she reasoned with a sigh.

"Besides…that final version of that weapon he designed for you _is_ more complicated than my Milo" she touched her weapon as she said that, "Maintenance might be an issue but as long as we have the designs, another craftsman can work on it instead of Ash when we need."

She looked thoughtful before adding, "And there's the fact that there are _many_ craftsman who would like to work on Ash's stuff. He's not very popular among his peers in Signal you know."

"The attitude?"

"The attitude" she confirmed, "It's really only because his skill level in crafting new weapons as well as design them is high enough that the Academy keeps him. Better to have him then to send him to a competitor. It's one of the reasons why he's located at the _Forge_ and not the Craftsman Department."

"Wait what?" Jaune twisted his head at her in disbelief.

She grinned before patting his head in a teasing manner, "Oh, did you _really_ think that craftsmen would actually work in such poor conditions?"

"Well…you didn't say otherwise. What was I supposed to think?!" he protested, "You even said that a craftsman was located there!"

"And I also said that it was a place where craftsmen are placed as punishment…else for some to learn a particular passive skill of course. The reason why Ash said that there are other craftsmen there is to mislead anything in thinking that he's there alone. Less said about how the Craftsman Department is actually _understaffed_ to his face the better" she retorted gently.

"…."

Jaune could only look at his partner in sheer disbelief of what was being said.

"He's _that_ unpopular?" Jaune muttered under his breath.

"Yes."

Thinking back on the conversation Ash had with them, Jaune tried to thinking of the ways the craftsman acted. He was confident for sure, though there wasn't much else he could tell that would've allowed him to realise that something was wrong.

-Aside from his office being located next to the _boiling_ room of all places.

"Wait, what about those people working in the boiling room? Are they all craftsmen are another profession?" he asked.

"Both" answered Pyrrha, "Craftsmen on punishment and _Forgers_ who specialises in making the parts of a weapon. Of course, craftsmen as a profession also include what forgers do but they spend less time on making the metal than building them into weapons. Most of the time, Ash is the one supervising them."

Jaune whined to that. As a Hunter, it would be like being commanded to take care of the non-hunter guards who have a much lower percentage of aura users among them. It would be belittling to what a Hunter could actually do.

"A lot of people must really hate him" he repeated.

She nodded while providing more information, "That and the fact that his office and workplace is located at The Forge means that he has a lot less customers which annoys him even more."

Ash _did_ say something about him needing more rent to stay in Signal. Jaune was guessing that unlike many other craftsmen in Signal, he rarely had regular customers that would give him a steady income.

"But we just used his service" Jaune pointed out, "And you said he was pretty skilled, meaning that others would prefer him somewhat due to that."

"In making or upgrading equipment, he's the ideal person to go to for that kind of service" she agreed, "However for maintaining things, there are many others that are in a better position quite literally that doesn't require one to go through a boiling room."

Tilting her head in remembering something else she also said, "I _think_ there was something about Signal students having a rite of passage in getting a new weapon by using his service. That's probably one of the reasons why he's still here after so many years. Hunters tend to flock to anything competitive and especially when it comes to their weapons."

"Really? I have a feeling that the infirmary is readily used whenever a group of students challenges that then" he said wryly.

He could see a lot of younger people than him trying to get through that boiling room for a weapon. The satisfaction of getting the weapon that you wanted after an ordeal like that would make it like a mini-mission of sorts.

Chances are if he was a Signal student when he started off as a Hunter, he would've falling into the trap of charging head first and fainting as a result of his failure. Jaune really only got there with sweating a good deal because of his much larger aura reserves aiding him. He wasn't skilled enough to control it for every last bit of protection.

Tapping his finger as a gained habit at times of rest, Jaune waited a minute before asking, "Have you found a suitable mission yet?"

"Not yet Jaune" Pyrrha absently answered, "Though as the leader between us, it should be _you_ who has the job of picking the mission."

He rolled his eyes, "As if you wouldn't double check every single mission to see if I did a good job or not. Better to just let you do the work if you seem to intend to do so either way. Smarter for me if I just don't bother."

She slapped his forehead, "That's being _lazy_ not smart. And what if I'm not there one day and you'll have to make the big decision on mission choice? Anyway, a decent Grimm subjugation mission a town away from the mines would be fine right?"

"Yeah…"

He grimaced at the possibility of her leaving. Even though he knew that one day it was very likely that they would go their separate ways, he was hoping that it would take years or better yet, _never_ happens. At times like this, Jaune could be a bit possessive.

It doesn't however change who he was though. The fact that it also included making thoughtless remarks was just unfortunate…

"Hmm…in that case, should I contact Hazel and Lavender to see if they are interested in helping us in the mission?" he asked.

Jaune could _feel_ her hand crushing where she was gripping. The fact that it was one of his legs did not help at all as he saw the sheer intensity of her deadpanned stare while feeling dread under the pits of his stomach.

"No, just _no_ " replied Pyrrha, "I'm not dealing with them again so soon. Fondness comes after a _long_ period of separation. Resignation and frustration comes much quicker if I have to deal with the crazies too soon."

Pausing for a moment to consider her words, Jaune decided it was best for his (physical) and her (mental) health if he didn't contact the pair of Hunters for a good amount of time.

"I believe I just finished making an appointment to accept the mission I had in mind for both of us" she said transferring some information about the mission to him, "We just need you to confirm and accept it on behalf of both of us."

He quickly scanned what the mission was. As a Grimm Subjugation mission, it was a tier higher than the ones he took on his own. Usually he would be soloing a small number of Grimm such as Boarbatusks and the uncommon Beowolf.

However this mission had Beowolves in much higher quantities, easily in the dozen with a chance of Ursas mixed with it. As requested by the town, they were expected to kill at least a good deal of them if not all of them. Unlike the countryside, it was actually better to kill the whole lot of Grimm indiscriminately.

"Got it."

Getting up, he watched as his partner tapped on an invisible screen only revealed to her eyes, as it was a norm for people before following her to the desk of the receptionist who was a young lady just a few years older than both of them with black hair and eyes with a petite look.

She was strangely enough _not_ wearing the same outfits that all other receptionists he had met in his lifetime had worn. Either this person was unique in some way, defying the rules or Signal and probably the other Academies around the world had a different protocol on what someone employed by them should wear.

"Hello, I am Akame and I will serve you as the receptionist at this desk" she said politely with a short bow.

"Nice to meet you" Pyrrha said politely in return.

"Y-Yeah" he awkwardly added after her. He couldn't help but at her a bit. It wasn't due to lust or any kind of attraction really. She was a bit plain, appearance wise and could not compare to the red-head next him.

However there were a couple of feelings coursing through him as he inspected her.

Confused. Surprised. But mostly confused at how she said her words. There was this _accent_ that he couldn't just place that felt off to him who only experienced at most a few ways of talking that all sounded similar.

Moreover, her name was _weird_. Definitely not something he could recall associated with a colour or really anything. The same could be said of Gred though. It was always weird to see once in a while of people who weren't named based a colour of some kind. The Great War being a war of independence and individuality.

"How may I help you?" Akame asked after a moment of pause.

Pyrrha elbowed him and he quickly rushed to say, "We would like to register for a mission."

The receptionist's eyes glazed a bit to the appeared screen in front of her. Seeing this, Jaune noticed that every single receptionist and official worker he had encountered always had their setting switched to be viewed by them and everyone else as well.

With the A.R.C for civilians and A.U.R.A for Hunters, there was no need for such a thing to happen. There was no need for Hunters to see what was happening between the communication between the receptionist and to the Guild or Hunter Association as a whole. Moreover, there was no need to show _everyone_ what was happening and not just the people associated with whatever exchange was happening.

But he could see how it would be a sign of trust to know _exactly_ how a mission you or someone else selected would be processed if you pleased to want to know. And less chance of a spiteful receptionist sending someone to their deaths with a false mission or one with false information, he supposed.

That _would_ explain why any mission lists would also include the names and information of Hunters that went on them and their expected return dates. It was no something he thought of much but there was a system in place to ensure that every mission goes as well as it could.

Still, it was a bit disappointing for him to only notice that _now_.

"Right, please upload the mission to me so I can see if it is still available. Please also note that any missions have a certain risk to it and it is advised to have a full team of Hunters working together no matter what" she gave them a pointed look but didn't comment.

After a moment when he uploaded the mission Pyrrha pointed out to him she gave them a warm smile, "Thank you very much."

She was awfully more polite than Gred ever was…and all the other receptionists to the Guild that he had encountered since then.

A few moments later, a notification appeared.

 **[Mission ID: 00259973 (Subjugation of Grimm) has been accepted]**

"Information for review on the location, number and characteristics of the Grimm will promptly be transferred to you as long as you're near a CRT tower. Please note any civilians in the area to help prevent deaths" Akame parroted away, "Furthermore, it is recommended to retreat if you are overwhelmed by Grimm."

"Additionally, any Grimm that you kill that's not associated with the mission will be rewarded at a half rate of mission Grimm" she finally ended. Her last sentence caught his attention though.

"Wait" he raised his hand, "What about Grimm Hordes? Won't killing too many of them cause one or more to appear?"

Grimm Hordes were a big deal. He knew personally one could do to a somewhat protected town let alone one that wasn't. The fact that he would be rewarded despite killing more Grimm than he needed was contradictory to what he had learnt to not do for the safety of the town.

A look of recognition appeared on the receptionist's face, "Oh. Do not worry. Due to the higher density of Hunters in the area, all Grimm Hordes are usually taken out by Hunters one way or another that are passing by. In fact, it is encouraged to thin out the number of Grimm elsewhere in Vale to concentrate it to where Hunters can most hunt them effectively."

Jaune looked at Pyrrha who nodded to those words. He accepted it then. It was…weird not trying to avoid large grouping of Grimm in fear that killing one too many would cause more to appear later on.

"Remember Jaune. In the mainlands of Vale, there are many more B and A rank Hunters around who can easily take care of any Grimm Hordes" his partner said, "This is especially the case for areas near Signal and Beacon which both have abnormally higher amounts of stronger Hunters to be deployed."

"Makes…sense" he admitted after a moment. That B rank team basically was a wrecking ball towards any Grimm they encountered to the point they could take on B rank threats with ease.

"If you wish to make any more inquiries, I am happy to supply you with information personally. Otherwise, please refer to Signal's Hunter Directory for more information" supplied Akame with another polite bow.

After a few more words, in a closed screen of his A.U.R.A system was said directory which he would look through. Apparently it was a summary course of information of anything a Hunter needed in a basic level. The one supplied by Beacon was much more advanced but there was little chance he would suddenly get one before his mission would finish. That and the information in Beacon's version required a higher rank than he and Pyrrha had right now.

"Right. Now all we have to do is get some supplies for the trip" said Jaune to Pyrrha.

"And make sure we know the path to our mission" she reminded him.

Both Hunters turned to Akame who said, "Thank you for your time. I hope your mission goes well."

"No worries" Jaune casually said while Pyrrha was much more polite saying, "Thank you for your concerns."

-o-

The trial of finding a place that sold supplies, researching the area in which their mission was in as well as the mining town _and_ reviewing the Grimm they were possibly going to face took a few more hours than he expected. This was, only after Jaune had decided he had seen enough of Signal.

The Academy was _huge_ and at the same time really didn't offer you much aside from being another mission hub and the occasional training area unless you were a student. And while he would've loved to read through the various skills they had in stock, time was short and he had other things to do.

The mission was held first for him compared to rushing into something without knowing what to do and where to get help. He did that when he started off as a Huntsman and it took him two years to get out of that flunk through sheer luck.

Not that he was perfectly fine with rushing towards any missions to help save lives or something but being prepared was always better than to be not for Hunters. Pyrrha seemed to agree with his methods in preparations which were honed by two years of only himself to look out for him. Even Hazel and Lavender deterred to him when it came to preparations strangely enough.

Bags were packed and checked over thrice, a checklist of what they needed was made and he was pretty certain that there was little chance they needed to crash in one of the nearby inns too many times but it was good to research the ones which catered towards Hunters than to be blindsided by that as well.

Still, that didn't stop him from researching a bit on the Grimm that he had encountered to see if there were any information he missed that he could've used to kill them or avoid being killed by them.

Like how Boarbatusks never really get armour under their bellies which remains their weak spots no matter how hard the rest of them are. Or how Bewovles with enough speed don't need their legs to chase after you. And how Ursas are surprisingly weak at the head despite that part being armoured more than the rest of its body.

The most impressive information he had encountered was of the King Taijitu species of Grimm. They are born…strangely enough with a connection via their tails as a single being. While chopping them into two wouldn't kill them, killing one of the heads will ultimately kill the other at that point.

However if they are split, whether willing or not, both heads will survive as their own entity resulting in a reduced strength of pure power but is more than made up with much more speed and survivability, coordination and even tactics that both could use at the same time.

There was even a list of tactics that would be suitable to face them in full teams and even lower number of Hunters.

That…would've been nice to have back then. Sometimes…he would get nightmares of that day but those were rarer with time. They just blurred with the other nightmares that seemed to crop up once in a while now. Yes, methods to ensure that any more tragedies wouldn't happen if he could help were good.

"Jaune, are you ready to head out?"

Said Huntsman looked up to see that Pyrrha was packed and ready with a backpack with a small amount of supplies. Considering that their mission seemed to be located in woods near a more isolated town compared to most in this region, bringing supplies would be pretty handy.

"Yeah, just reading a bit on King Taijitus" he replied.

A few moments later closing the many screens of information, Jaune got up and swung his backpack to his shoulders as well. His was a size larger than hers but only because he was technically trying to get stronger than the speed she progress to close the gap between them.

"I'm ready" he declared.

Hopefully this mission would go smoothly, after a whole month of good and easy missions.

Of course, what are the chances of only a small group of select people being associated and connected to every single major event within any area that they are staying in? Life was not some sort of clique story, no matter how much Lavender seemed to always tell him that.

* * *

 **A/N Notes:**

 **The first two-thirds of the chapter is so bloody fact it takes of a solid 10K words and it's only because I rather not have an _entire_ chapter on discussions of weapons that I added the rest of the chapter as a bit of world building of Signal as limited as it was. Still, I was on the fence on whether to describe the latter iterations of Jaune's future main weapon. **

**I eventually leaned on adding versions 2-3-4 in the chapter mainly because my idea of Ash (the craftsman) would be someone would design the best of his ability before realising that he needed to 'downgrade' it to be affordable and accessible. In my mind, the weapon would be some an oversized switch-blade sword before being turned into someone similar to the Gunblade from FFXIII and eventually becoming size larger that even that.  
**

 **Surprisingly enough, the 10K portion of the first part of the chapter was actually closer to 3K words when I started off. The descriptions and reactions from all parties? That wasn't there and there were just 4 paragraphs on what Jaune's weapon versions to be upgraded too were. Then I added some reactions...then expanded the descriptions to better fit the image in my mind...added more reactions and it eventually evolved to 10K words before I knew it.**

 **Also Zabimaru is a ridiculous looking weapon despite people suggesting it as Pyrrha's new weapon. Think Ivy's sword or the cane-whip from Bloodborne for better reference to the 'core' of Pyrrha's weapon. As for its appearance think mechanical sword-whip...with guns. Because everyone but Jaune (And maybe Weiss and the Dust users?) in Canon RWBY had guns somewhere in their weapons...  
**

 **Well at this point I know how the rest of the arc will go though not the next and the following. But I do know that I would want to write about the Vytal Festival and everything that entails. And because Cinder isn't the full on hidden bad character of this series (yet?) (Or is it Ozpin who will be the big bad?), Beacon's Fall will (probably) not happen.**

 **Finally as a note, chapters might take a while longer for me to write and edit before posting.**

 **The reason? I'm currently playing my my copy of Pokemon X quite a lot more now. Just finished the main story line in under 24 hours of playtime a few days ago and got all the Megastones available to the game. Am now capturing, evolving, breeding and trading pokemon on a good scale going by route and pokedex entry number to not only complete the Kalos pokedex but also have a copy of all 450(~) pokemon available to the game. It's going to take a long while before I'm done...not to mention I hadn't start my copy of Alpha Sapphire yet.  
**


	11. Chapter 11

**Disclaimer: I own nothing of RWBY which belongs to Rooster Teeth and the late Monty Owm.**

* * *

 **Chapter 11**

 **A Signal to Travel**

When he arrived at Signal Academy, Jaune had not expected to leave so soon. It hadn't even been a single day.

By nature, Hunters were usually within two types. They were those who would centre their 'world' on a single location and do everything to defend that place and those who travelled and help out whenever they are in the right place at wrong time. The former was more commonly known as 'Protectors' and the latter being known as 'Wanderers'.

Both were _Hunters_ by classification but people tend to elude what the profession should be to the latter. Jaune blamed the fact that most stories that talked about heroes referenced Hunters as 'Wanderers' and 'Protectors' as Knights.

The only problem was that most people weren't wanderers by nature and would prefer to stay in a place they like. Even Hunters that did wander would soon settle down. To defend that place from being destroyed was the natural human reaction to a threat they held dear. Even more so for Hunters as this type of reaction is encouraged.

 _'I remember dad always telling me that protecting people came first before anything else if I wanted to be a hunter…'_ he mentally mused to himself.

Ironically, or rather as expected, that kind of teaching is one of the main reasons why the capital cities of each Kingdom tend to be powerful places. Not only is it because of such places having the best technology, supplies and locations to defend them from the Grimm but also because they are places Hunters wanted to live in and _protect_.

However, there are other places that to a lesser extent also show the same kind of reaction to Hunters. Places like Signal, places that Academies are built on and many more that had many Hunters come from them would eventually regain some protectors…if they lived that long to retire.

It is even less surprising that many Hunters would want their place of learning to flourish in the case of Academies which only boosted the number of Hunters in each capital city. However due to this, the island of Patch is more often _called_ Signal because the Academy had _become_ the entire island from its many years of expansion to capitalise in this need.

Even if the expansions were pretty recent.

 _'Still, I wouldn't mind going back to that place. There's a lot of people and a lot of opportunities to get stronger there'_ he thought with a small smile.

Jaune Arc had a taste of a place that thrived on the interactions of Hunters rather than one that relied on one to survive and the difference was clear. The school of teaching had so many things that he didn't know he lived without for so long. He had actually forgotten what it was like to have a surplus of fruits and meats without needing to ration them for later just in case.

He had forgotten what it was like to sleep on a comfortable bed and not keep an eye out for danger while trying to sleep. There were so many minor things that he didn't realise that he had lost when he started off as a Huntsman that it was a bit of a sudden blow to experience and know that he had lost them chasing after his dream.

It was these small luxuries that he realised another reason why Hunters tend to flock to large cities.

The luxury is _great_.

Of course, he himself as a Huntsman wouldn't just take a mental vow to protect any place with good food but he was in a word, tired of wandering. It had been just over a month since he had lost the place he called a second home for 2 years of his life and a good deal of him wanted to settle down already.

Remnant was a large world and even the continent of Vale was significant in size. It would take months on foot to travel from one side of the large continent to the other. The novelty travelling really wears off after a while.

Still there were other options open to him, ' _Not that I would want to use them often.'_

Bullheads and other modes of transports may reduce the time needed to travel from place to place significantly but those are usually only reserved for the very rich or in most cases, Hunter related emergencies. Or in some cases, Academy related Hunters not the Guild ones like him.

 _'I would be envious of them if not for one thing…'_ the thought itself made his stomach turn a bit.

Air travel, to his eternal dismay might be the quickest way to travel but all forms of travel but it was the most likely to cause him to get air-sick. It was a small secret that he _really_ didn't want Pyrrha to know. She already knew of many of his weaknesses, knowing another was just putting salt on the wound.

This meant that he and his partner would probably walk everywhere unless they had to get somewhere really quickly. Ineffective but it would calm his mind more than waiting for the time he would be on land again. But like all things, taking one option over another had its own issues.

Travelling on foot would mean that they would often need to stop and restock in supplies from town to town along the way to a destination else go hunting for food. This also means a lot more Grimm attacking them since there weren't that many air capable Grimm out there.

Yet this option also brings up the option to be constantly be trained by Pyrrha while travelling as well. But not too much because risks of exhaustion and once more the most pressing issue people usually have, Grimm.

But, such thoughts had nothing to do with his current situation except to be vaguely relevant in a small fashion to which that they were travelling on foot. As well as the fact that they were in the woods again, with his partner and were probably surrounded by Grimm in some way. Not to mention they were mostly lost.

He thought that line of thought that because _thankfully_ Remnant seemed to have a knack for developing useful tools for Hunters.

"Right, are we close enough to a CRT tower to know where we're on the maps?" he wondered aloud, bringing up a core feature of the A.U.R.A system for Hunters…and really anyone as long as they bothered to use their A.R.C systems more often to find the not directly stated feature there.

The Map.

 _'A bit strange this fact isn't as apparent to everyone but most people other than Hunters further away from the cities tend to not rely on the systems too much'_ he reasoned.

"Hopefully" the red-head replied, keeping an eye out. This kind of place was prime ambush bait for Grimm to suddenly pop out and attack.

Tapping some options, he made a screen from his A.U.R.A appear relatively large in front of him as well as appear for Pyrrha as well who just took a look before going back on her overwatch.

Fortunately, there were two flashing icons with each of their personal symbols on the map in question.

"Looks like we are" he breathed out a sigh of relief. Not a moment later he started scanning where they were to where the nearest town was. They might not make it to the town that was where their mission was but at least they would have a more comfortable and safe place to sleep for the night.

Only the truly powerful, prepared or foolish dared sleep in the dark where Grimm prowled. He was none of those things, for better or worse.

Stopping her watch of their surroundings for a moment, Pyrrha took a look at the map and muttered in consideration, "If we rush a bit and don't mind being arriving a bit late at night, we might make it to our destination before the next day."

She drew a line where they were to where said town was. He didn't bother remembering the name of the place and only the location on the map but he was sure it had started with a 'D' or something. She took her finger and drew another line on the transparent and floating map to the nearest town afterwards.

"Or we could go to this town and wait the night before travelling again" she bit her lower lip, "There's only two of us this time and having only one person on watch is too dangerous."

He agreed, "We should go to one of the two towns then…one has higher risks but we might actually end up doing the mission _in the middle of the night_."

"I rather not have to have us fight in such circumstances" even Pyrrha whined at that.

There was a good reason why most Hunters preferred to fight in the day. Not to mention how low visibility would affect their battle worthiness, Grimm didn't need their sight to track and hunt down people. The best hunters could fight in the middle of the night was either with a lot of light artificially shone everywhere or from a clear defence point.

That or they were Faunas whom tend to have good night vision.

"Then let's head to the nearest town then" she offered.

He agreed and motioned for her to follow him. While it had only been four months since he had met her, it was getting easier to command her to follow him instead of him following her all the time because she knew what she was doing and he didn't.

It…was a strange feeling.

And probably a strange sight as well. He almost let out a chuckle of what it looked like for someone as renown as Pyrrha to most Hunters to follow around an unknown who seemed less than average in all ways.

 _'Even though I knew the reason why she preferred my company than others…it's sometimes a really strange experience.'_

The feeling of making her do stuff for him made Jaune feel like crap for a good while before he realised that this was supposed to be how it worked between them as leader and subordinate. She joined him and not the other way around. But at the same time she was his _partner_ which only made their relationship a bit stranger to think about.

"Jaune, pay attention" said partner reminded him.

He blushed, "Oh, sorry. Got lost in my thoughts again."

Hearing the reminder, the blonde made sure to double time pay more attention to their surroundings. Fortunately the woods they were in weren't that thick. There was a good deal of room to walk around and dodge any attacks. This also allowed Grimm to move around more easily though any room to easily dodge attacks was a good thing to have.

He also didn't dare summon an Aura Soldier no matter the benefits and protection that doing so would bring him thanks to his semblance. The Aura made construct would just it certain for Grimm to attack him instead of a low probability right now.

 _'Aura attracts Grimm though not as much as negative emotions…'_ he recalled.

It took them a good two hours before they saw the light of a nearby settlement which was the town indicated on the maps. It was a good thing because the sun had already settled and in the woods, the trees blocked any moonlight that would otherwise aid them in the middle of the night.

As they approached, Jaune saw that there was the common two gate-keeper allocation at the entrance of the town. However he also spotted at most a dozen other guards on the barely tall enough walls. All of them had low powered rifles on hand unlike the far more intimate weapons he was more familiar with guards having.

Either they have better supplies due to their location…else something was a problem.

"Halt!" one of the gate-keepers immediately spotted them as they approached near the light spread by the few torches on the town walls.

Being polite, both of them did what the man said before he asked, "Who are you and what is your business here? Curfew had already started and there are Grimm around at this time."

Raising an eyebrow to that last statement Jaune said, "Both of us are Hunters are accepted a mission to help trim down the Grimm numbers in this area. We're actually heading to the next town over but it went dark sooner than we thought."

It was a lot better than saying that they got lost in the woods and eventually barely stumbled their way here in the dark.

The expression of both gate-keepers immediately gave change to relief. That always seemed to be the first thing people did when you told them that you were a Hunter. Not that he blamed them, Hunters were a rare enough profession even with the Guild standardising the lower ranks that people still had much more demands than supplies of them.

"Good. Please come in and meet our mayor" the other gate-keeper said quickly before preparing to open the gates.

Jaune stopped them asking, "Wait, don't you need our IDs or anything?"

It was generally good protocol to confirm that you were indeed a Hunter and what _rank_ you were. Due to how the Guild handled introducing new Hunters to their jobs, there was an issue with people new to being a Hunter trying to reap too many benefits without doing anything resulting in people trusting Hunters a lot less.

The Guild and practically most Hunters stomped on that trend _hard_. It was easy to introduce a protocol to tell people what rank you are as a Hunter to others as a level of trust of how strong you are. While still causing problems with people of lower ranks, it at least was better than F rank Hunters trying to play off being a strong Hunter when they weren't.

"Usually but the mayor sent out orders that any Hunters would be welcomed here if they help with the Grimm problem" one of the gate-keepers shrugged.

The other provided more information, "Since around a month ago, the Grimm in this area increased a lot. Usually Hunters would come in and handle the problem since we're close to one of the trading hubs of Vale but most of them went somewhere for a mission or something."

"Still doesn't make it good that they left us to rot" the other said bitterly before looking at Jaune and Pyrrha more brightly. It was an odd feeling, "But thankfully, at least _some_ reinforcement was given for us to survive by. A lot of our stuff had been interrupted because we can't get into the woods anymore."

Jaune nodded numbly not sure what he and by extension Pyrrha could do to help. Sure they could kill a lot of Grimm to help but the area that this town lied in covered a lot of ground and would take more than a couple of Hunter teams to help clear out in a week completely.

 _'Still, we do have a mission relating to getting the Grimm numbers down…though we still have that other thing Ash wants us to do as well'_ he thought before considering his options again.

They could make a preliminary run around this area to clear out the most obvious Grimm in a day or few but that wouldn't account for the couple of Grimm that would hide from them. The more dangerous Grimm tends to be the smart ones and would hide from Hunters strong enough to kill them.

It would take the two of them _months_ to do anything that the full force of several Hunter teams could achieve to completely wipe out the Grimm population. And that wasn't adding in the factor of more Grimm showing up or spawning in the meantime.

But Jaune didn't say anything about that. A place to sleep for the night would be nice. That and they would only spend at most upwards to a week before needing to leave for that mining town a few towns over from here before going back to Signal for their weapons from Ash.

By then the mission would be 'complete' since they didn't have to _completely_ wipe out the Grimm but rather only most of the obvious ones. Shameful as it may be, they didn't have much time to do a complete sweep nor did he believe they actually could with only two of them. With more numbers? Sure, but not with only two people.

But that didn't stop him from feeling he was being selfish by not stating that they in fact could not solve their problems by being here.

"Actually we have a mission the next town over but I suspect it will involve clearing out the Grimm in this area as well" he said while both gate-keepers nodded to that.

"Good, now let's get you two inside. The Mayor will want to talk to you first and Captain Richards is due back tomorrow evening from his own hunt. GATES UP!"

The gates creaked upwards following that command and he quickly walked in with Pyrrha silently following him. He found it strange for her to be so quiet and not advising him constantly at this point. Having the red-head advise him constantly on things he missed out on became a stable in his life.

He wondered if he was doing the right thing.

"Am I doing the right thing?" he whispered to himself.

She didn't answer but somehow, he knew that she would follow him despite anything that would happen. He hoped he would do the right thing without her help.

-o-

The Mayor of the town named Fredwhit from what he knew from the man's introduction was a plump man. He was blading, reasonably dressed and seemed to be intelligent enough to know when he is being aided but being _plump_ was the most impressable quality about him.

"My fellow comrades in arms" the man said jolly fashion, "Thank you for coming here in our time of need."

Jaune smiled thinly and replied, "Don't mention it. We just took the mission and came here for that. Like I said to your gate-keepers, our mission is on the next town over so we need to go there tomorrow."

"But you _can_ help us as well I believe. There aren't any restrictions to helping people right?"

"None at all."

"So here's what I'm thinking" Fredwhit started speaking, "Since you're leaving tomorrow perhaps we can get you and a couple of my men to trim out the Grimm numbers tonight to ensure the safety of the innocent civilians before we accommodate you in some rooms."

That did not retract him from trying to take advantage of a situation though. And it didn't prevent Jaune from rejecting that as well.

"I'm afraid we can't do that" the Huntsman shook his head.

"Why not? Sure Hunters of your capabilities would be able to-"

"Like I said, _can't_ do that" he repeated himself. Seeing the man open his mouth again to try and convince him to fight for them in the middle of the night Jaune spoke up, " _Why_ should we fight in the middle of the night? _Why_ should we fight where the Grimm hold the advantage? And _why_ should we be risking our lives right now when we will be later?"

"Because you must!" the mayor snapped before realising what he said, "My apologises. The situation is direr than you think and I suspect that you will be coming back here sooner or later for your mission."

"But you are not the mission requester" the blonde pointed out.

"True but the man who made the request is a fellow mayor and should be coming soon. The Grimm are hording the walls night after night, my people are at risk from this! Surely you can see how bad things are becoming without any help."

"That doesn't change that you can wait a _night_ before we make any kind of decision."

"But it is your _duty_ to aid us in this time of stifle? We have given so much to you…" the man moaned 'pitifully'. This was getting too annoying to deal with and it was showing on his face.

Thankfully, Pyrrha stepped in.

"We are sorry Mayor Fredwhit but while we have orders to eliminate the Grimm in the area from a mission but nowhere does it say that we have to do so right now. Furthermore we are taking this mission under our _own_ will and can just _leave_ if we wished" said Pyrrha.

Most civilians usually didn't press any issued they had with Hunters unless they were that desperate when it came to asking for help. Most Hunters were willing enough for the odd job and Grimm Hunting as long as it came with good food and a place to stay the night but there were still some lines to be drawn.

One was targeting other people in general. Another was putting Hunters in (more than normal) dangerous situations. Of course, the use of blackmail or any kind of influence was frowned upon but most of the time things get 'sorted' if those kinds of people push too far.

Such people tend to disappear often. It did help that many of such civilians whom did press the issue to far, no matter how rich or influential ended up without Hunter support. And in Remnant, that is akin to being exiled.

"B-But, the Grimm!" the man stuttered out, not believing what he was hearing, "So many people died because of them attacking so often. Much of the funds of the town had been drained away to arm the guards with ineffective weapons! At this rate the town will be lost!"

What made it worse to Jaune was that the man wasn't lying about anything he said. He truly believed that the town would be destroyed sooner rather than later if the attacks from the Grimm continued at this rate.

Of course, that alone didn't stop Jaune from listening to the man's rant. It clearly held a lot of clear information to dissect.

"Not to mention the nightmares that seemed to plague to me and my people now out of nowhere! They started without warning I tell you. One night everything was right and the next I wake up feeling an echo of _dying_ along with half the town. I thought it was just a consequence until it . .Night!"

"And _then_ if things weren't bad enough, that abnormally large Grimm came and destroyed a significant amount of my town before it decided to leave! A dozen lives lost just like that and everyone has been getting on _my_ case when it wasn't my fault" the man continued to vent his frustration by shouting louder and louder.

By the end, the glass on the windows shook a bit to the sheer volume that was being produced. Jaune was decently sure that anyone near the building heard the rant at this point though he doubt the mayor would care seeing how stressed he was.

That level of emotion…that level of _fear_ the man had was worrying. Usually when someone had such high negative emotions, Grimm would start to stalk nearer and nearer until they are close enough attack. With this, anywhere from a few to a dozen Grimm would come closer to the town over a few weeks.

This effect is amplified considerably when a small minority of a community experienced this. And if what the mayor is right, _half_ the town is like this…Jaune really didn't know _how_ they managed to survive so long without some ancient and powerful Grimm awakening to kill them all.

The blonde Huntsman was more concern of when the other shoe would drop in this situation. All it took was an angry mob or riot in such a faraway town to be _completely_ destroyed without anyone noticing.

 _'And I still don't know if it was a good or bad thing we decided to stop here instead of travelling in the dark'_ he cursed.

Jaune really didn't want to get involved with another Grimm invasion. Especially since he experienced what it meant to fail protecting a town was like and what he would be forced to do _afterwards_.

So many dead bodies…

He could decide to leave right now. Neither the man nor the rest of the town really had any way on stopping him from doing so. Considering the state of the town which could be just as bad as or worse than the man said it was, Jaune along with Pyrrha would be stuck on another emergency mission that they were in no shape to succeeding.

A C rank Huntress and D rank Huntsman was in _no way_ good enough to stop an entire Grimm invasion on their own when even a B rank Hunter _team_ would struggle to. But on the other hand, he considered, all of his paranoia might be wrong and things weren't as bad as the man said it was.

Jaune would like to just want to take his chances into the night instead of risking himself for more traumas that he was still dealing with. But he was a Huntsman and dealing with a number of issues was part of the job….that and he would feel especially guilty if he had just abandoned people even if nothing happened.

Considering all of this in his head…he decided to stay.

For better or worse. Signalling Pyrrha, she sent back a gesture that approved of this decision. The girl really never had the nerve to deny a request in any real way so it was no surprise of her own choice.

 _'Better than to be kicked out of town right now'_ he hopefully added though in no way completely believed that.

"Fine" Jaune ruffled his hair anticipating and knowing the headaches he will be dealing with soon, "You made your point. We'll help but _only_ if it doesn't interfere with our mission and when we leave later."

"Understood" the mayor seemed to de-age remarkably and straightened his back. Was that all an act?

"What do you need to know?"

An eyebrow rose to that question and the man seemed to truly laugh for the first time in his presence, "I have dealt with Hunters before and I know that they wish too little of stories but rather raw facts. Anyone with a request to Hunters would know to prepare best to make their jobs easier."

He spent a moment wondering what the deal with that was since he never had any issues with people telling their problems in more elaborate ways but decided not to question. The 'culture' of Hunters in this side of Vale was quite different than what he dealt with before.

"Fine, there are a few things we need to know as best as possible" he said,

"Grimm numbers, species, and locations I presume?" Fredwhit asked, "Those can easily be given in a report soon after our meeting ends."

Jaune nodded, "Yeah those will be helpful but there are a couple of things I rather know more of that you…ranted about."

The appearance of a middle-aged man blushing was a disturbing one.

"Of course, what do you need to know?"

As Jaune said, "The Grimm attacking your walls", the mayor's face darkened, "Quite frankly I'm surprised that the town isn't at constant attack right now if what you said about the townsfolk is correct. Half the town having nightmare is more than enough for a Grimm attack. It almost looked like you were surprised that Grimm would attack in such circumstances."

"Well-" Fredwhit's face scrunched up, "The attacks have been frequent at the beginning as you suspect but it had died down since then despite the nightmares actually spreading to more people."

"Nightmares…are spreading?"

"Yes, that's what's most strange about everything. Nightmare occurred, we get attacked by Grimm. The Nightmares continue but the Grimm attacks died down eventually…then a far more powerful Grimm appeared out of nowhere. I don't believe this is common for Grimm attack Huntsman."

Frowning, Jaune dearly wished that it wasn't him who was speaking to the mayor about this but Pyrrha. But considering his position…and well how he didn't want to rely too much on her, he just had to endure getting through this conversation professionally.

The nightmares can easily be written off as something that the residents of this town being not used to Grimm being a constant threat. He knew he had nightmares when he first saw a Grimm for the first time but for such a constant and widespread series of nightmares? There was no way that this was just some strange consequent.

The world wasn't kind enough for that.

Fear attracted Grimm like no after.

"Can you describe, well the beginning of when things started to happen?" he asked.

The mayor nodded and talked, "Like I said, it began with the nightmares which naturally caused Grimm to attack. The first two victims were the former gate-keepers who died without warning. We found their bodies the next day and were on alert for more Grimm attack."

With a depressed look he added, "The number of volunteers for guard duty dropped sharply and hadn't risen back to normal even after spending so much lien on those rifles that I know aren't as _good_ as Hunter weapons. Still it was cheaper than hiring Hunters that would at best be a temporary solution."

He looked at Pyrrha's weapon and shield in particular, ignoring Jaune's own in some effort to not ask why _his_ weapon seemed no better than the ones that his own guards used. The blonde mentally shrugged considering that Hunter weapons were less than half the reasons why Hunter could take on Grimm.

The rest was made up of their finely honed skills and aura.

"Things…eventually escalated to the point that we were actively sieged for a few nights when things seemed to get worse and worse. Then, the attacks slowly started to stop happening so frequently. We believed that it was due to killing enough Grimm that this happened."

"And it wasn't?" Jaune tilted his head. Despite how infinite the Grimm may seem, there was in fact a finite number of them. It was only because they spawned so quickly that they seemed endless.

"Yes, around a week ago the worse attack happened" the man sighed, " _It_ attacked the walls allowing for Grimm to rush inside the town killing many people. But most frightening was how powerful _it_ was. Our rifles didn't affect it and our swords broke on impact."

The Mayor shivered at the thought of the memory, "It was toying with us. The fact that it retreated only meant to drive us to more fear and despair. After that, I talked to several other mayors in the area and we eventually got the funds to commission a mission for aid."

"Can you describe that Grimm? Height, size, any special characteristics are things we need to know to kill it. In fact, we may know most of it's by the _species_ of the Grimm."

"It looked like a Gorilla" the man finally answered after a pause.

Searching his memories of a Grimm that matched that description in Vale brought him to a blank. However it seemed that Pyrrha knew of what he was talking about and muttered out, "A Beringel? In Vale?"

A message from her showed some of the most common information about it. Around twice the height of an adult male, really buff, really strong, really fast and has the ability to aim decently against Hunters.

All of them made it as dangerous if not more than a Death Stalker. It was something that no inexperience Hunter could face against and live even if they tried running away from it. Jaune suspected that he would at least need to use a lot of Aura to even wound it. From what Mayor Fredwhit said, any common weapon couldn't even hurt it.

…And considering the quality of his own weapons, well he once more had no doubt he would be in a supportive role again.

"Are you not familiar with the creature?" Fredwhit asked, perplex.

The red-head shook her head, "No, it's just that…a Beringel is much more common in Vacuo than in Vale. It would take a lot of migration for one to appear here and that's discounting it encountering any Hunters and surviving through all of them and yet not gets reported at the same time."

"So it's smart as well as powerful" Jaune grunted feeling the headache, "I _hate_ the smart ones."

His partner rolled her eyes, "We all do."

Three knocks on the door and everyone turned to it. The person on the other side did not announce himself and let himself him and Jaune wondered who this person was to be so easily allowed to enter the room.

"Mayor Reed! Nice of you to come" the other mayor in the room called out.

Inspecting the new presence in the room, Jaune saw a tall thin man with greying hair standing before him. Most noticeably was that he had a great deal of stress lines over his face, he looked like he didn't sleep in days and his clothes were ragged even by common civilian standards.

Still, the man has this…sliminess to him that made him feel a bit off.

"Nice to see you in the realm of living Fredwhit. I came over after I heard about the attack." Reed said while taking a look at the two Hunters, "And it seems it was the correct decision if I can have my say to the Hunters here."

Fredwhit furrowed his brows hearing that, "I believe it is better if you try to take them away now that my town finally has the help that we need to possibly any more deaths."

"Oh but it was _I_ that contributed the most to the funds to call in the Hunters here. Furthermore, the location to which they were to meet for the mission is at _my_ town as well. Sure you understand my position here."

"Yes but they are here _now_. They will be helping to remove most of the Grimm influence in the area and why stall on technicalities when it's better to start as soon as possible to prevent more deaths."

"And whose fault is that? I believe you are among the only mayor to purchase such arms. I dare say you were prepared to fight more than any other town. Aggressiveness against the Grimm only makes things worse."

"Reed! Don't you dare imply what I think you are thinking!"

"And what may that be? All I'm concern is that provoking the Grimm will be our fall. Surely you see how everyone else feels about this matter."

There was a tense moment between the two figures of authorities before they started arguing again.

 _'Politics. Really? People are dying and they want to argue who gets to get help first?_ ' the Huntsman sighed.

Maybe they should just skip town and finish Ash's request before leaving. It might be a cruel move but there are always limits to his patient and listening to how he was to be manipulated to do something was pushing it.

A minute later and his patients ran out.

" _Enough_ " he almost shouted out, "Whatever you two want, the facts remains that you two are relying on _us_ and not the other way around. Our mission is to kill Grimm. The amount and how long we would do this is not defined at all."

The thinner man tried opening his mouth to speak but Jaune cut him off, "Yes that means we can literally kill a single Grimm and say 'mission complete'. It won't give us much lien but we can still do that."

Towns without Guild Branches (and also stationed Hunters) were weird in how they operated. They did not directly hire straight from the Hunters but by proxy from another place if they could like Signal. Still, these were usually only presence near the core of Vale where there were more Hunters all round to spare.

It was just a hell lot more efficient to have all missions in an area posted in a single location than spread out over several smaller towns individually. It is due to this reason that this town and the towns in this area all relied on Signal to bring them Hunters. But there were still other issues such as the costs of hiring Hunters.

Signal much to his surprise had a constant ongoing mission for all Hunters in a certain area to kill any Grimm they encounter. There was no way to fail this and you would get paid (if only a fraction of what a specific mission gave you) to kill Grimm. This had two effects. One, made the population of Grimm decrease _heavily_ and two, heavily increased the price of Grimm subjugation missions. And all of a sudden, many towns no longer had ways of paying for missions to kill Grimm nearby even if Hunters hunted them occasionally when they passed by.

It was a good improvement to the lives of those mostly unaffected by Grimm but the completely opposite to those who have Grimm problems and now can't pay for it. Places like this; it seemed if _several_ towns had to cooperate to pay for a mission like this.

"Now, what we will _all_ do is take the night off to cool our heads. Me and my partner here will take the next day to scout the area out and kill any Grimm that appears and attacks us" he continued, "And _after_ that, we will be discussing what the hell seems to be going on because, _you_ -"

He pointed to Mayor Reed.

"-Have the same nightmares as everyone else in this town and I bet your _town_ is having the nightmares as well."

The Huntsman tried and barely managed to resist a stutter as he finally said, "If you have any questions, that can come _tomorrow_ or else."

-o-

In the end, they were shuffled to a guest room in the building and were left on their own. Jaune had no doubt that there would be 'servants' nearby to attempt listen in and check if they were still there.

"Right, we're staying in this room tonight and tomorrow we can deal with those Grimm" Jaune turned to his partner, "Anything I need to know before we hit the sack? Any worries?"

"A couple" she admitted.

Pausing only momentarily as he made his bed, he allowed her to speak as soon as she wanted.

"Considering the states of the other towns…though _implied_ , I fear that something may have also happened to the mining town that Ash asked us to arrive at."

He considered that thought it made no difference to him, "That changes very little. We still have a few days to get there and escort the package to Signal. We have the time to at least check out what's happening around here before sending a request."

"True, the higher ups will take more concern from the words of a Hunter" she lips thinned, "But hopefully we won't have to and this is just a case of more Grimm appearing due to a lack of Hunters on sight. The next time this happens, I suspect they will be better prepared for the gap so many Hunters leaves."

Thinking about the quite vague mission to Mountain Glenn he couldn't help but to ask, "I have wonder where all those lower ranked Hunters went. I mean, where are they? They're not strong enough to be for whatever mission is happening but for so many of them to disappear?"

"You forget that a mission of that scale isn't all about combat" she smiled, "Logistics, supplies and intel is just as important and something while not trusted to civilians can be trusted to Hunters because they are trained. Remember that Vale doesn't have a true military like Atlas."

"Ah."

"Still, are there really no other Hunters in the area besides us? Or are they pre-occupied with something else" he wondered.

"There are no reports of other Hunters so I'm presuming there isn't" she then frowned, "If there are however, it would mean they are highly irresponsible for not reporting something that may threaten several towns' worth of people.

Jaune had nothing to say to counter that. It was certain Hunters being selfish that caused the Grimm to attack before. And although he found it ironic, he would now need to do the same actions to save several towns. Killing too many Grimm _did_ attract more.

But at the same time, if you killed enough of them, you could decrease the number of Grimm in an area to the point that it is much more manageable than to be more cautious. This at the same time naturally made it safer for everyone if you had the numbers.

The Huntsman was thinking that this situation was at least partly caused by the lack of Hunters coming to kill Grimm and the Grimm reacting to humans the same as always but without Hunters trimming their numbers down.

"Might be good if we take out as many Grimm as we can before leaving" he reasoned to himself, "It can't hurt to just help people because we could."

Pyrrha paused for moment, obviously considering the same options as well before responding, "Yes, that may be the right choice."

-o-

Aura rotated and thickened in his arms and legs as he endured the hit of the Beowolf via shield. He activated Aura Burst to _burn_ the creature of darkness making his Aura become more like _burning light_ to it.

It flinched in pain and the Huntsman in crappy armour took the chance to abandon any defence with his shield to hack and slash the Grimm while it flinched from his previous attack. Funnily enough, he was a lot better at dealing with Grimm when he allowed himself to be more relaxed in his defence.

More opportunities to attack even if it means taking more hits in general was a lot more effective than playing it safe.

Glancing around the battlefield for any more threats, as it was a habit now, Jaune promptly ducked under the attack of another Beowolf he just spotted before moving himself to prepare to attack. Pyrrha however was quicker and shot down that Beowolf.

And that was before flipping in mid-air after said attack, dodging several attacks from the Beowolves that were attacking _her_ which numbered more than his sole one and switching modes of her weapon at the same time to allow her to fight in close combat.

Even now, seeing her fight was impressive and made him _doubt_ of how she could think she wasn't strong enough for doing enough. She certain did enough to kill-steal from him even if it was to protect him as best she could. Jaune took her assistant with strides before moving onto the next enemy he needed to defeat.

Combining Aura Charge and Aura Burst at the same time to his sword, it became literally a glowing white sword of _death_ to any Grimm and he used it to swiftly cut down the next nearest Beowolf to him in a single strike before moving onto the next and next and _next._

A few strikes later the effects of his skill faded a bit too much and he found his sword was blocked by the face mask of the next Beowolf he wanted to slay in one hit. He kicked said Grimm before slashing down, killing that Grimm before scanning the surroundings again.

 _'Looks like she has it all under control'_ he noted.

There were a couple more Beowolves and a shattering of Boarbatusks here and there but Pyrrha was making quick work on them. Unshameful in using her semblance to such large extents without strangers observing her, she manipulated her shield to _fly_ and decapitate Grimm left and right before landing back in her hands too perfectly for it to be a consequence or measure of trained skill.

Even seeing it now, his mind couldn't figure out how she could use such a mentally taxing skill and yet fight as usual.

"Jaune! Ursa to your left!"

His body reacted before he could think.

His shield was already up and it was a close thing because without it, he would've taken serious damage. That still didn't stop Jaune was being flung back metres from where he was standing before. While he was decent he wasn't that _good_ to have the skill and application of aura to stand his ground.

Ursas were the size of large bears… _minimum_. A punch from _that_ basically would make anyone fly away if they weren't prepared to block and stand in place. Physics still applied to Hunters even with Aura making sure that crippling blows would only bruise and broken bones would mend in weeks rather than months.

Sliding and _still_ standing, Jaune had to make that distinction in his mind; his eyes shot up back to the Ursa and found it charging at him. He doubts he could move away from this position in sort of mid-air while his feet were sliding off the ground to make his body stop. Not to mention the force on his body was pushing him _back_ and not to side to side.

By the time he would have the chance to move without screwing up somewhere and tripping would be around the time his body would stop at a standstill. That was bad.

Crap.

His Aura flared up again instinctively to brace for impact but at the same time Jaune triggered his mental switch towards his legs and _moved-_

 **BANG!**

Dirt and leaves burst off the ground as the blow of the Ursa Grimm barely missed him. He was faster than before, he noted. It made sense with all the training he had in solely increasing his speed for the sake of learning those two Passive Skills and it seemed to have been paid in dividends.

Using the passive skill a second time, Jaune once more narrowly dodged a swiping blow towards his head by moving further away. Some may try to duck or move closer towards the large Grimm to safety but he wasn't brave or skilled enough to try it. Instead he lashed out with his sword carrying his Aura making shallow wounds on its arms. He would need to get in deeper to wo _und-_

 _The Ursa roared._

 _The Ursa didn't notice Pyrrha._

 _Pyrrha attacked its back._

 _Jaune used Aura Burst and stabbed it at the front._

 _The Ursa died._

 **[Total Slain Grimm: 17]**

When that notification flashed in his face, Jaune blinked in surprise. There…seemed to be a blur in what just happened before and after a certain point to the battle. Now that he thought about it, he knew how he was moving but he also knew he wasn't thinking when it happened.

That surprise led to him letting out the sound that should've been some word but didn't manage to be when it came out, "Hu-uh?"

Pyrrha looked curiously at him before detecting confusion on his face, "Jaune, is there something wrong? You didn't get hurt anywhere right? Aura can't protect you from every blow."

 _'No I just experienced by body moving beyond my thoughts for a second before I realised that I killed a Ursa more easily than I ever did'_ he snark mentally.

Gulping, Jaune realised that he really didn't know how to explain it to his partner without sounding crazy. Even though chances are, she would know what he was talking about which would mean he wasn't crazy.

But it was likely that whatever happened was both crazy and common to Hunters.

Either way there was no point in not answering the red-head, "Yeah, something weird just happened. Well not weird-weird like the nightmares the town has but weird as in I don't know how to explain what just happened."

She looked expectantly to his explanation and he made due to what he knew and could describe, "My mind was…how do I say this…blur? In fog? I'm not sure how to describe it but during that last bit with the Ursa around just before you attacked it from behind my mind was…blank and…stopped but my body moved like, _better_ than I ever could before in such circumstances."

Hearing those words, the red-head's body stiffened up by a degree which was pretty much the most minor twitch that anyone could miss. However what he focused more on was the look of joy she had?

"You're already to that stage already?" she looked at him with a small proud smile.

"Stage? What just happened to me?" he asked.

She gave herself a moment before starting to speak. That was also when Jaune realise this was going to be another lecture. Sure Pyrrha made sure he knew everything he needed to know the moment he needed to but her lectures were…sometimes boring? Well to things that didn't interest him that much at least.

"Think of it as an extension of your body moving on instinct."

 _'Okay…?'_ now he was just confused.

She tapped her finger as she continued talking, "Almost all the training that Hunters do is to ingrain certain instincts into their bodies because most of the time we fight at speeds that is normally beyond human reaction. Doing this allows us to take on multiple Grimm without a problem and it's only when we are truly too overwhelmed or the enemies are too powerful that we struggle."

"And what does this have to do with me?" he certainly wasn't at that level yet.

"Hush you" she slapped him lightly, "Hunters will often automatically react to being attacked, attacking in certain ways to even moving in certain positions based off their training and often experiences. Those who use a shield will react to block more than someone who lacks one who reacts to dodge."

"What happened, _is_ happening to you isn't uncommon for Hunters. Remember that" she told, " _Everyone_ from C rank and up have experienced the lapse of mind in battle which _aids_ us to survive what would normally kill us."

"Some Hunters or at least where I was taught called this stage ' _To act without thinking'_. In fact, what you experienced is a larger scale of what allows people to know how to use a spoon, tool or walk. It's rare for anyone outside a Hunter to experience such a thing for more than a second."

"This is pretty common?" he wondered.

She nodded, "Have you seen…say a person leap away suddenly when spotting a spider nearby?"

"Yeah…oh. So it's just a higher level reaction?"

"Yes but it is more than that."

And once more he was confused.

The Huntress seeing that look on his face sighed in exasperation, "There's an old saying that there are three stages or levels of…thinking in battle. To think and to act. To act without thinking. And finally to act while thinking. Progressing pretty much allows you to understand on a higher level in a fight."

 _'To think and to act'_ was most likely what he was doing all the time, Jaune concluded. It made sense that the first step to knowing how to fight was to know what to do before taking an action.

 _'To act without thinking'_ was the thing he just experienced. Jaune had little idea of the full scope of what this might mean to him but he could basically sum up that he would battle without wasting time on _thinking_ about doing something before doing it.

Finally _'To act while thinking'_ was the most confusing statement. He got thinking before acting and the other way around but to do _both_? It was most likely a higher level of control and thought process that worked at the same time.

"In other words this is some natural process of me getting stronger mentally to deal with fighting at high speeds?" Jaune concluded before feeling relieved when his partner didn't deny his words before chuckling.

"Thought something was wrong with me because all the harsh training that you place on me. I might have developed a limp" he teased.

"Nonsense" she huffed.

Jaune paused for a moment before smirking at her, "It wouldn't be strange if such a thing happened because you pushed me too much."

"Training is almost always _never_ the problem for a Hunter. Aura is one of the best training tools that we could ever have short of true regeneration" said Huntress justified herself, "And my training is _perfectly_ fine. There are many more that do _worse_ in my position to get someone like you up to standards."

He paled thinking of _harder_ training. Pyrrha was already making him work till his bones were on the verge of breaking. For the first month and thereon, he was in a living hell that only became more manageable recently. He didn't want to think of what training he needed to bring him up to 'standards' any quicker than right now.

"I'm a D rank Huntsman, a weak one but _still_ a D rank Huntsman" he tried convincing her, "I was the lowest of F rank only 4 months ago meaning you helped me jump _two_ ranks in less than half a year. That is almost unheard of Pyrrha. Any more significant training for results would mean jumping _three_ ranks into C rank like you."

He was barely _D_ rank. His stats were of a high E rank Huntsman or low D rank Huntsman. Getting to C rank would mean…so much more training to bring his body up to higher heights. Pyrrha on the other hand was a mid to high C rank Huntress and from the brief look he got from her stats that one time, she was physically _overwhelming_ compare to him.

To get from C rank from where he was right now would mean he had to double his stats _overall_. To say what…extreme actions he would need to achieve was beyond Jaune. Getting twice as fast, twice as strong and so on would meant _months_ of constant and intense training to condition his body better.

Something he didn't have much of to make a decent living at the same time.

"Getting to C rank for me would…take a while" he slump his shoulders to that realisation, "Even with so much training I'm barely D rank, how can I get to C rank before you manage to get to B rank or even higher?"

She could do it. She was certainly skilled enough and all she needed to do was some intense training on her own to push her body above what she had right now. The only reason she stalled was for training _him_ instead.

"Yeah, you just need more confidence in yourself" she tried to reason; "You _are_ making great progress, more than most in fact."

Jaune deadpanned after hearing that giving her a 'look' but then sighed.

"You're a C rank Huntress" he started speaking, "And not only that, by the time I would manage to get to C rank you would be B rank and _if_ I could get to B rank as well, you would be A rank. I'm resigned to know that I can't ever catch up to you."

"Yes" she agreed causing him to feel a bit crushed, "Because I am improving as well. Not only that, _everyone_ is improving as well. Perhaps in time, B rank Hunters would be the new average instead of C rank Hunters."

"But that just means you have to get stronger faster."

The Huntsman couldn't help but to laugh at such a simple solution.

"Ha ha ha…thanks" he rubbed out the tears that leaked, "I really needed that right now."

Despite how his father always said he needed more confidences for all things he did, Jaune knew that he lack quite a bit of it.

"No problem."

She smiled brightly at him, "It's also nice to know that you would want me to train you harder than before. Do not worry Jaune, I will make sure that you are no longer insecure about yourself as a Hunter. Not to mention all the extra training you need to control your Aura will be needed soon for your huge Aura reserves."

"…."

Jaune, speechless decided he rather _not_ speak about what hellish things and to what extent he would let her do to him in the name of training. She wasn't a sadist, he knew that…but sometimes he really wished she was just so he could complain that she was intentionally making him feel pain.

"…Anyway we cleared out this area so we should head to the next one. The sooner we finish this, the sooner we can leave and say we did as best we could before calling in some reinforcements to pick up where we left off" he pointedly didn't look at her as he said that.

Best way to avoid hellish training is to avoid looking at the source as much as possible.

"Indeed" Pyrrha nodded in agreement though didn't comment of his antics, "Although leaving those people there is…distasteful at best, we can at least make it safer for them and easier for the next Hunters to come and help them."

She paused for a moment before also adding, "I'm surprised you didn't mention anything about gaining more lien as well. That seemed to be one of your incisive needs to do missions before."

"Money is surprisingly getting easier to gain despite doing less missions" he waved off that comment, "It's probably because I save most of the most essential things I need on habit so I don't need to re-supply too much."

"And I didn't want to sound greedy if I mention it as well" he admitted after a pause.

There were many types of Hunters but most agree that aside from having _power_ to do what they want, it's the money that draws people into the profession more than anything else. The amount of money you would gain killing Grimm, even the weakest one was more than what a simple guard could make at a time.

Even if the death rates were extremely high for the unskilled, there were enough people all around Remnant who would take up the profession to make money.

"Don't be. Hunters need a lot more lien to survive due to our need of better weapons and lots of supplies in many forms to not die on the field. There are many Hunters who take out loans only to pay them back and more from a large mission" she assured, "And while it is a bit arrogant, there is a good reason why we are among the most well paid professions out there.

"Greed is also a good factor to gain more power as a Hunter if you don't be consumed by it" Pyrrha also added in the end.

"Hmm…you always seem to make the best points in an argument" Jaune in the end decided to just pout, being unable to counter any of the points she brought up. Shaking his head, he just decided to focus on what he could do right now.

Killing Grimm for people.

-o-

With a strange gradual increase in Grimm numbers the more they hunted after two whole days' worth of fighting, Jaune decided to deployed his Knight-Type Aura Soldier for extra manpower among other reasons.

His semblance pretty much made it difficult for him to die when he used the skill and the Aura being leaked from the Aura Construct made it so that Grimm came to them at a much higher rate. It was due to this that they managed to cut through their hundredth and something Grimm in such a short time.

By the time they were heading back to town for third and final time before going off, Jaune didn't expect anything to go wrong.

….

….

….

It happened too quickly for Jaune to know precisely when the battle started but all he knew was that his body moved to dodge a fatal blow that would've taken his head off. He ducked as the rippling, almost liquid like black limb that threatened to behead him from beyond the trees.

His mind raced to determine and identify the type of Grimm he was facing but it came up as a blank. Things went worse when his body paused the same way his mind did for a moment. The limb twisted around to attack him from another angle and he wasn't ready at all to dodge.

Fortunately, the AI of the Aura Soldier skill kicked in and automatically used itself to protect Jaune by pushing him off to the side and as a result, take the hit instead of him. The worse part was how _easily_ the attack went through most of his Aura Soldier and killed it.

 _Cr-ACK!_

" _JAUNE!"_

Pyrrha moved at the same moment she shouted and tried to reach him but leaped out of the way of three more of those limbs coming out of nowhere beyond the trees.

"G **aH** a **gaUg** hAug **hea** g **gg** h!"

"What the hell was that?" he whispered in shock.

Hearing the scream of…whatever that creature the Grimm decided to appear as, Jaune's bad feeling about all of this increased more than usual. He rolled out of the way and threw a block up as the impact forced him back a fair distance away from his partner.

Pyrrha's weapon flashed several times in a row as she tried to cut off or destroy one of the claws that were attacking him. Considering he was only dealing with one and her with three, it was understandable that she was struggling to deal with triple attacks. When her weapon failed to cut through them with ease like she expected, there was a flash of surprise on her face.

Twisting his body in unnatural ways beyond his normal flexibility, Jaune was barely able to keep up with Pyrrha in a series of dodging streaks for their lives. However, eventually a _second_ 'limb' came out and slammed into his shield, throwing him off balanced. A second strike knocked him back into a tree.

"Ouff!"

Air escaped from his lungs as he reinforced his body more with his Aura and saw that the two limbs that were originally on him moved to attack Pyrrha as well, forcing her to directly block more and more before even she was forced back.

 _'This is bad'_ he thought, _'Even if you don't mention how quickly these limb-like things can attack us, there are so many of them that I'm suspecting multiple Grimm! Multiple Unknown Grimm that have surrounded us!'_

"Pyrrha! We have to retreat!" he shouted before hissing in fear as a _claw_ slammed next to his head, barely missing him.

"I'm trying! There's no opening to escape to" she shouted back with panic appearing more in her tone than ever before.

Jaune cursed while motioning his Aura to summon up a distraction for them. A single Aura Soldier was more than a good price if it meant they could live another day right now. But his entire body _froze_ at the sight that suddenly appeared in front of him.

It was a giant Gorilla Grimm. But it wasn't _anything_ like a Beringel. _Those_ at least along with every other Grimm he knew and could label had the decency of having a complete solid form. This… _thing_ was definitely a Grimm from the feeling of _horrordeathfeardespair_ it had but it was _worse_ than a normal Grimm.

And more disturbingly was that it looked like some sort of strange and evil black flowing substance was trying to imitate a Grimm and _failed_. He had never heard of such a thing before. It didn't have the white mask that all Grimm were known for.

 _'It doesn't have armour but why does it feel more dangerous?'_ he rapidly thought before seeing the multiple limbs were attached to it.

With his urge to curse out loudly for ever letting him deal with such a situation, Jaune promptly summoned two of his Aura Soldiers before sending one of them to die and the other to run away and hide so he had a 'second-life' if it ever came to that.

Things got worse as the Aura Soldier he sent to die was pierced through and _consumed_ by the monstrous Grimm.

"What the-"

Things got _even_ worse when the connection between him and the Aura Soldier was severed, destroyed before _it_ was spat out again coating in black goop instead of the usual pristine white. The next moment, Jaune was forced to fight for his life as the _imitation_ of his Aura Soldier tried to kill him being much stronger and faster than he remembered.

Several clashes of blade against…whatever goop that thing was made up and the blonde Huntsman saw that his sword was being corroded away.

 _'Crap.'_

Disengaging, Jaune saw that his partner was in a similar situation, being double teamed by two creatures made by the Grimm in the appearance of the Grimm version of his Aura Soldier as well. Even worse was that the _main_ Grimm body was still attacking her as usual, trapping her slowly but surely.

Without hesitating, he threw himself to helping his partner, even risking his life by being a distraction for a moment for her.

Aura of white and black flared out of their bodies as the Huntsman blocked and slashed his way to his partner using sheer _force_ as the Huntress started to actively use her semblance to boost her own physical abilities by force. They were unable to _cut_ the creature properly but they could at least deflect it away for a moment.

"We need to leave, now!" he said again.

Pyrrha in response could only grit her teeth, "I know but like I said, no openings for us to use. That thing is too big, too fast and too powerful to let us escape like that."

"And can we let such a thing exist near people we vowed to protect?" she asked.

Jaune didn't dare to pause but his thoughts did, at least for a moment before he replied, "No, we can't. But we are of no use if we die here right now."

"Yes, that is why we will escape."

" _HOW?!_ "

"By running away of course" she smirked. The next moment, he felt hands in one of the pockets he had and widened his eyes as he saw what Pyrrha just took out.

 _That_ cost him a fair bit of money to get. Special grade-

"Close your eyes!"

- _Flashbang!_

Bad luck seemed to have stuck Jaune as he did not in fact close his eyes. He was blinded and couldn't actually _feel_ anything properly as he was even deaf due to the high pitch noise that the flashbang made.

"Damnit Pyrrha!"

To affect Hunters and even Grimm, the level of power behind one of these would permanently blind and deafen a normal person. Or a couple of seconds to minutes in the case of Hunters and Grimm. Strangely enough, Grimm acted the same as any other creature when flashed with a bright light too suddenly.

Therefore, the Huntsman was very not surprised when he opened his eyes to being dragged rapidly behind his partner who was using her semblance to push him forward where she was running while lifting him enough that he actually wasn't being dragged.

A few minutes later of Jaune trying to get a response out of Pyrrha but she didn't seem to want to listen to him right now, opting to concentrate on running away with him at the moment.

As such, it took him by surprise that they stopped causing him to stare blankly on the ground when they did. The red-head look at her surroundings rapidly with her head snapping one direction to the next before finally gazing towards a ditch with bushes covering it.

She dragged him in it and if not for the atmosphere of _doom_ they were in, he would've blush as she huddled in close next to him.

"Hide your Aura" she whispered quietly to him, "Do it quickly or it might be able to follow us."

Hearing the desperation in her voice, the blonde didn't question anything she said and made sure to clamp down on his Aura, which was a really _uncomfortable_ thing to do. Hunters were meant to be flashy; a known presence even to Grimm and hiding was a difficult thing to do when you were trained to flare out Aura to a threat.

Still he managed to do so and keep it that way after a few seconds of failures.

"Grimm can track people with more than one sense. Better for unwarranted worry then to be caught in sight" she explained when he whispered why they were in the bushes in a ditch somewhere.

Jaune silently nodded in acceptance though he still blushed a bit every time his thoughts came around to how close their bodies were. Breathe in…breathe out…breathe in…breathe out…

Jaune was in fact a bit peeved that she didn't believe he would remember something as simple as that but he chalked it up to this being a stressful experience for her. Then again most Grimm fights were stressful for him to begin with.

"…."

"…."

"…."

A minute passed before Jaune finally said, "I think we might have escaped it."

"…Agreed" the red-head replied meekly after another minute.

Seeing Pyrrha so…meek was a surprising sight. Strong. Confident. Humble. These were the things that were associated with Pyrrha Nikos inside of Jaune's mind. Meek was not one of them. Not even in the top 10 words he would describe her with.

After a moment to sort through his mind and thoughts he asked her, "What was that _thing_? I never even heard of any Grimm that had the _characteristics_ of that thing let alone its description."

"I am…not entirely sure as well" Pyrrha admitted after a pause.

It almost felt as if she was pained to not know something to explain to him, "My training in Mistral had armed with the extensive knowledge of Grimm there and the general knowledge of Grimm elsewhere but I have no heard of such a creature before."

"Neither have I…" though that wasn't saying much.

That made sense and was at the same time a bit foreboding he had to admit. Even he knew of the most common types of Grimm around Vale and most of them can be categorised as some variant of an animal that had been twisted as the Grimm imitates them.

Was that creature was rare type of Grimm or something entirely new? Driving deeper into the mystery gave him no answers and he couldn't tell whether its existence would be a good or bad thing relative to Grimm in general.

"Should we report it?" he wondered but once again confusion played on his face as he thought out loud, "But don't our A.U.R.A systems track all Grimm we encounter? I mean, that's how they track how many Grimm we kill…"

"I believe it tracks the _presence_ of Grimm and whether the unique signal from them fades from your actions or not. It is most likely that what you are thinking of would take far more processing power to be sustainable on a large scale."

Jaune pondered before agreeing, "Makes sense. Still, we might as well report it to Signal since I have a feeling that _that_ isn't the Grimm those two Mayors was talking about and this is a completely different threat."

"Or this creature _ate_ that Grimm and took on its shape. It certainly did with your Aura Soldier" said Pyrrha grimly.

A thought of horror later that he was sure was displayed on his face, the blonde Huntsman reaffirmed his conviction to avoid facing whatever creature that was by saying, "Yeah, we _not_ going to face it if that's the case."

And although Pyrrha seemed to have some conflict on leaving the people in the hands of such a creature, she eventually also agreed that this was the best plan for now, "I doubt we would be able to face it right now…and if we somehow enrage it, its next target would be-"

"The nearest town and everyone in it" he sighed, "Basically we can't really do anything about it right now. We might as well go back to town and ask if their Gorilla Grimm was more liquid than solid…which also brings up the question if they knew about _that_ Grimm to begin with."

The red-head hummed before taking another look around before saying, "We should be clear. Better make it quick to town before it spots us again."

"Yeah" thinking about how he should make the report made Jaune feel glum, "I don't think they will be happy to know that their Grimm was stronger than it should be or that there's something worse around."

"That and more research is needed on whatever that creature was…definitely not one of the standard common types of Grimm out there" he muttered as he followed his partner back to where he supposed the town was.

If Pyrrha knew whatever creature that was, she wasn't telling. He doubted she knew considering the level of surprise that she showed when she was unable to cut through the Grimm…though that only makes it even more dangerous.

-o-

"So you are leaving now, like you said" mayor Fredwhit said with dissatisfaction.

Jaune nodded, "Yes, we mostly cleared out the Grimm so the safety of this area and the towns nearby should be better than before. However there are still Grimm out there and your people shouldn't push their luck."

"That's better than I expected I suppose" the man sighed. Mayor Reed, who was standing on the other side of the room, rolled his eyes.

Inside the office of the Mayor along with them from before was also the Guard Captain by the name of Richards. Middle-aged, rough and armed more weaponry than most, he would've been an intimidating sight for most except for Hunters.

Jaune noticed that he had an active Aura which while small compared to Hunters was enough to put him above any others without Aura and strange because it was out of _tradition_ that only Hunters would have an active Aura no matter how small.

This was to reduce Grimm attacks to those who can't fight and yet have Aura and to prevent a _war_ using Aura wielding _armies_. That almost happened during the Great War and luckily enough; only the most elite forces that were all Hunters had Aura though there were still scatterings of others did.

"Yes but I have worse news."

Everyone in the room stiffened to that.

"We found…a certain particular _Grimm_ out there" he grimaced at the very recent memory, "At _least_ B rank in threat and has particular characteristics that makes it especially dangerous. And no, it wasn't the same Grimm that attacked this town. This is a completely new threat."

"Of _course_ it is" the Guard Captain sneered, "And you are telling us this because you couldn't kill it right?"

Ignoring the venom in the accusation Jaune just agreed with the words and ignored what the man implied, "Indeed. With the two of us, we can handle _C_ rank threats like a Beringel well enough but a _B_ rank one? Those are town-killers on their own _with_ Hunters protecting those towns."

The two King Taijitu were B rank threats and it took _teams_ of Hunters to take down and most of them _died_ doing that. A B rank Hunter team was _called in_ to deal with the problem when it appeared as well. Not matter what; he was _not_ touching this situation at all.

"I'm really here for two reasons. To say my goodbyes as I have another task nearby and to report this to you so you _know_ that there is a large threat nearby while a team of Hunters that can take it out is sent to deal with it" he continued to say.

As expected, the news that they had another large threat was not taken well.

"Can you really not kill it?"

"What are the threats to the nearby towns if this Grimm continues to live?"

Both Mayors seemed to try to push the task on killing it as soon as possible onto him. But fortunately or not, most of the details and attempted guilt trips went over his head as he wasn't that good at reading the more…delicate situations than he should be. Pyrrha always took care of that and she wasn't here right now.

She was packing up and getting ready to leave when he finished this meeting.

That said; the Guard Captain seemed frustrated that they were unable to kill said Grimm with a hint of…joy? He wasn't skilled at reading people but he thought he saw a smirk when he reported they couldn't kill the Grimm though his words said otherwise.

"So the Grimm stronger than your capabilities to defeat it" Richards said in a way that implied things that Jaune rather not think of.

It was probably to try and rile him up or something but he really didn't care. He knew better than some that there is no fault in admitting your lack of ability when it helps you survive. Two years of failure made you a lot more humble than you thought you would ever be. He entered the Hunter world with too much confident and too little skill and ended up with a better balance in both now.

"Yeah and another team of Hunters will deal with it" he repeated himself.

"And _you_ can't? You just…ran away!" Mayor Fredwhit pleaded again. Jaune didn't know what was up with this person, asking him to face that thing was a death wish in the making. Furthermore, he even told them all that another team of Hunters would be coming to help later.

"Protocol dictates that any unknowns are to be avoided with lower ranked Hunters like me to minimise deaths. Usually only those that are at least experienced B rank Hunters would fight despite facing unknowns against them" explained Jaune in a pragmatic tone.

"Basically, make sure any rookies don't get over their heads and dies. Didn't know Hunters did that as well" Richards huffed.

This time, the blonde did glare at the man before deciding once more not to comment. He was leaving soon and there was no point stalling because of a fight. Still, he had something to ask them nonetheless before he left.

"Anyway, is there a reason why you all want me to fight and die? I don't believe that's an entirely healthy relationship to have with Hunters" he asked.

Mayor Reed grunted, "The costs on hiring more Hunters will destroy us before any Grimm would."

The Huntsman blinked in surprise.

"Costs?" he muttered before realising something.

"Oh. _Oh_ " Jaune exclaimed, "You don't need to worry about the costs. Despite there being a B rank threat, the mission itself will be upgraded to an A rank one because of the lack of Intel on the Grimm. It's not one of the known types of Grimm out there and could be anything from a C rank Grimm with a perk that allows it to be more difficult to deal with to a true A rank threat."

"I…see" Richards raised his eyebrow.

Jaune flicked open his A.U.R.A before searching and finding the section for requests for support. There were a couple sections here which include emergency, quick support and aerial support among many others. The one he selected was one for a new mission by proxy.

Kingdom policy included any A rank or higher types of missions to be sponsored by them directly allowing small towns and even cities to not need to burden themselves with the costs on paying Hunters for such expensive missions.

A few minutes later of filling out the forms which was pretty much digital paperwork, a notification signalled to him alerting that the request was accepted.

 **[Request "Support against B rank+ Unknown Type, Limited Known Special Characteristics, Unknown Characteristics" has been logged]**

 **[Processing…]**

 **[Location Confirmed]**

 **[Mission Parameters Identified…Confirmed]**

 **[Request Confirmed. Thank you for supporting the A.U.R.A Hunter Association Mission Log]**

"Done. I just finished the forms for extra support from any Hunters nearby including Signal though don't expect a team of Hunters strong enough to deal with that unknown Grim for a few days" he said offhandedly getting ready to leave, "The mission will be pro bono by the Kingdom so you don't need to worry about the costs as well."

"Is there a reason for that?"

"Yep" he nodded, "Most places with a true A rank threat won't be able to pay for it. That and those A rank threats are a danger to substantial part of the Kingdom without keeping it in check so it's easier for the Kingdom to just pay out for the most dangerous missions instead of people not reporting issues right away due to monetary problems."

He saw Mayor Fredwhit flinch slightly but turn his head to the door.

"Thank you for your help and I hope you achieve what you came here for" said Fredwhit.

The other two didn't say anything but those two seemed be the types of people he really wouldn't get along with. Too much criticism and not enough actual help on their side really strain any patient he would have with them.

It was a good thing that he mainly interacted with the plump mayor instead, especially since he seemed truly concern about the people he was looking out for.

"No problem" he waved behind him before leaving the room and then building while heading towards the gates where Pyrrha would be waiting.

-o-

"Are we ready to leave?" his partner asked.

Taking a mental recap of their inventory, the path they would take to the mining town and their conditions and time of day, he nodded before remembering, "Oh! Should we end the mission now or later?"

"Later, technically any Grimm we kill during the mission will be worth a lot more than any Grimm we kill afterwards" she said, "And you need the lien to pay for your equipment from Ash. Another 200 000 Lien and you will be able to fully equip yourself for a good year or so."

"Until I decide to upgrade my stuff minus the fees to repair any damaged equipment. How much do repairs tend to cost by the way?" he started walking and Pyrrha started following next to him.

The pair of Hunters started travelling on foot once more, with day slowly setting by the minute. They would arrive to the next town to rest by the time night came and would travel to their destination the day after.

* * *

 **A/N: This chapter was difficult to write, not because of writers block but rather a combination of several new series I've picked up reading (some are really long) and the recent head wave in Australia. The latter made it _impossible_ to write unless air-con was on full blast (40** **°C = 104 °F) and really didn't help with any ideas that would be later scrapped from the chapter entirely.**

 **I believe I had to rewrite a significant portion of the chapter just to make sure the quality didn't dip so hard. And boy did my first draft of this chapter dip badly in quality...I blame the heat wave and picking up a lot of other things to do while in break. I salute the _insane_ writers that are able to write so much and dish out high quality stuff so quickly.  
**

 **Moving onto the actual chapter, there isn't much to say at all.**

 **There were plans on more character interactions with some of the folks in the town as well but I cut those out. This was originally supposed to be two chapters instead of one which wasn't even supposed to be here according to my plans for this arc.  
**

 **Well I'm off to write chapter 12 now...**

 **P.S: Those who care, send PMs for any errors that you find in this chapter. I have no doubt that there are and I rather _know_ where they are so I can edit them instead of you posting a review that there are grammar errors _somewhere_ which really leaves me either trying skimming through the chapter for an hour to find said error or not caring at all.**


	12. Chapter 12

**Disclaimer: I own nothing of RWBY which belongs to Rooster Teeth and the late Monty Owm.**

 **Now rated: M (For violence and disturbing scenes to later come)**

* * *

 **Chapter 12**

 **A Nightmare Beginning**

In the broken world of Remnant, there exist Four Kingdoms (Menagerie _clearly_ being stated otherwise due to being a _Faunas settlement_ ) and Hunters that fight against the Grimm to prevent humanity from being killed and exterminated. For all their differences, Hunters remain a core part of every single Kingdom as Aura seemed to be the equaliser against Grimm.

However despite this same fundamental core of each of the four Kingdoms' core and culture, there remain many differences, many of which could be called natural due to circumstances.

Take the Kingdom of Atlas, formerly Mantle for example. Unlike the remaining four Kingdoms, Atlas is _heavily_ militarised with advances in technology decades ahead of anyone else and due to this has the least Hunter influence on it. Not only this, Atlas remains the location with the _highest_ level of dust mines in Remnant save the Dark Continent which remained untouched for centuries. However despite this, Atlas's population remains the lowest of all Kingdoms, has the least farms and has to rely the most on trade agreements with other Kingdoms to survive.

This is due to the climate of Atlas being a akin to an almost frozen wasteland. If not for the dust which is _essential_ for humanity to survive, the founders of the Kingdom would've left a long time ago.

In contrast, the Kingdom of Vale is the polar opposite of Atlas in many ways. It hosts the highest number of human settlements as well as the most number of farms and other food producing locations but most importantly, is the _least_ militant of all Kingdoms taking freedom and individuality to the limits with Hunters having the most influence in the Kingdom. However it is also the location with the most number of Grimm throughout the lands and has the least number of Dust mines of all four Kingdoms. Still, Vale is a _powerhouse_ through the sheer number of _Hunters_ that they produce even _before_ the addition of the Guild.

With constant battle against the Grimm everywhere and the high numbers of births and deaths, it is little surprise that a place like Mountain Glenn appeared. Filled the most with Grimm save the Dark Continent, it is only due to the fertile lands and being the _trade hub_ of Remnant that allowed Vale to survive.

In contrast with Atlas and Vale which seem sometimes as the centre of Remnant, Mistral and Vacuo seemed to fade outside of the spotlight. They have neither the… _extremities_ that the other two Kingdoms had but had their own specialities which makes them stand out.

Mistral much to no one's surprise hosts the most number of cultures of all Kingdoms and has the most crime due to the many Clans that it houses. But more than that, they also are the location to which have the _strongest_ Hunters among all Kingdoms. Sure they are geared more towards human opponents but no one complained when they used those skills on Grimm as well. Unlike Vale which has a decent quality and _massive_ quantity of Hunters, Mistral's Hunters are step or a couple higher than average. This is due to the clashing of cultures which ended up creating a new one that revolved around _fighting_ to gain anything you want.

As such, it was a very much surprise that the _ace_ of the new generation of Mistral Hunters, Pyrrha Nikos ended up as such a polite girl. Still, it did nothing to deter her from _trashing_ all her opponents with ease.

On the other hand, Vacuo has none of the population, resources or cultures of the other Kingdoms. This is only fitting considering Vacuo is a Kingdom formed over a _desert_ of all things. Not much opportunity to do much besides try and survive in small tribes. But what make this continent _shine_ are the _ruins_ that it houses. Unlike the much better hidden ruins in every other Kingdom that you might get one or two in once in a while, Vacuo has _dozens_ uncovered each year.

Therefore it comes to little surprise that Vacuo hosts Hunters with _exceptional_ skill with Aura which only helped them survive over the centuries where others relied on external factors to do the same. Due to this, many Hunters are sent or travel to Vacuo to increase their understanding of Aura.

Atlas brings the technology and dust.

Vale brings the food and trade.

Mistral brings the skill with weaponry.

Vacuo brings the skill with Aura.

This is the relationship between the Four Kingdoms. A bond forged in war against one another in a distance past before being cemented into something that forces each other to rely on cooperation and unity to survive and thrive. If one Kingdom is lost, all the others will be greatly weakened.

But Vale, which provides the most food and being the _central_ continent is the key to everything. If Vale falls, everything falls into darkness. It isn't too far fetch to say that the survival of Remnant rests on whether Vale survives or not.

And due to this, there are many organisations, much more than _any_ other Kingdom _combined_ that worked to prevent the destruction of Vale.

The Guild.

Academy Alliance.

The Council.

Hunter Association.

And many _many_ more.

Despite its 'young' age of three decades, The Guild lead by Cinder Fall comes first in the mind of the common folk when asked where Hunters come from now. This is due to the rather _lax_ methods of recruitment that goes along the line of 'if you want to fight, we get another body to use' that seemed to have no issue with pushing young hopefuls into their deaths as long as they want to. Due to this, the mean average strength of Hunters in the Guild tends to lean on is D rank.

90% of all Hunters come from the Guild which makes up 5% of the population of humanity. This isn't as large as many people would like and hope, mainly because the Great War cut the population of humanity in _half_ and only continued to drop since then which only _recently_ managed to rise up again. It is saying a lot when the most population intense Kingdom only has roughly 100 000 people alive in it.

Still there is nothing to laugh about an organisation and its people which have branches in every single Kingdom, taking up many of the roles of guards and sentries to prevent wide scale damage via Grimm.

In comparison the Academy Alliance led by Headmaster Ozpin makes up the group with an equal amount of influence as the Guild. Being ancient, spawning directly after the Great War, they were traditionally the ones who trained the Hunters and therefore have a lot of influence. Now they trained the select elites that would _lead_ other Hunters. The Hunters that come from them tend to be a step or two stronger than the average Hunters.

Little said where the other 10% of all Hunters come from. And unlike the Guild which seems to specialise in small to mid-scale disasters, Academy Hunters focuses on countering _large-scale disasters_ that would potentially _ruin_ the Kingdom. However due to the four years of training, the mean average of Hunters from Academies in the end tend to round up to B rank.

A stark difference compared to the Guild though no one ever underestimated sheer quantity with the Grimm around. Needless to say, having a constant Hunter population of a hundred being trained and several hundred more in the outside world having graduated makes them a powerful force minus the influence they have.

Of course, if you wish to talk about influence and Hunters, you need to talk about The Council which serves as the _counter_ to Hunter influence in Vale. These people make the laws, manage the people and most importantly, _make sure the Kingdom isn't on fire_. A difficult task but necessary in the grand scheme of things even if they generate _unholy_ amounts of paperwork for everyone else.

Finally you have the Hunter Association…

 _Who?_

The _smallest_ of those who tend to have influence over Hunters in any way; the Hunter Association is made up of _retired_ Hunters…which are quite rare due to the nature of the profession and the side-effect of Aura luring Grimm over. Still, there tend to be two types of retired Hunters. They are those who retire early and those who retire late.

The former…well aren't combat ready and are Hunters in just name while the latter tend to be old monsters that are tired of fighting and wish to live the rest of their lives peacefully. It also didn't help that The Guild was once a branch of the Hunter Associated focused on recruiting and training up new Hunters before sending them off to Academies.

Very minor. Very forgettable.

Then Cinder Fall came along, took control and expanded the operation of training new Hunters into a _system_ before separating from the Hunter Association in every way while taking all the old monsters and most influential money spenders. The Hunter Association after that remains a shell of what it once was. And no one but them complained about it.

Due to this, while the Hunter Association remains with some influence, it was nothing compared to what the Guild was now and what it once was. Therefore it was natural that the Hunter Association would hate Cinder Fall with a passion. Too bad the leader of the Guild was an exceptional woman in all areas.

 _– Extract from Remnant: Modern Day influences on Hunters._

-o-

Blacken smoke rose above the trees and darkened the skies the closer they got to the mining town labelled on the map. It made sense that along with the bare essentials structures to maintain a town, there would be an emphasis to any kind of buildings that would generate a profit.

In this case, grinders, smelters and blacksmiths where the rocks coming from the mines were broken down, turned into purified metals before being shipped out were shattered all over the place. There was a strange disjointed feeling in the building placement, he noted and it was likely due to a rushed series of construction with less planning than he expected.

And while this mining town cannot compare to the rumoured technologically advanced mines of Atlas where machines (and rumoured Faunas) were put to work to pump out tonnes of materials a week, it apparently has enough machineries to make due to become one of the mining points where Signal get their ores and metals though not one of the major mines of Vale.

"Where…is everyone?" asked Jaune. The town was…for all means, silent.

Silent as in there was no sound save the primitive machines that went about the jobs that were programmed into them. Stepping into the town and looking around, he quickly realised that he stepped into a ghost town.

"This is weird and strange" he said with slight higher a pitch, "Please tell me that this is not _common_ to find places where you expect to be filled with people as ghost towns? Please tell me."

As a Hunter and someone trained to take on creatures that frankly would leave any ordinary person in shivers at the thought and nightmares when they dream, Jaune was very used to risking his life when he fought. And he was very used to experiencing terror.

However it was an entirely different matter when it came to things he didn't know existed or not. Uncertainty was something that got to Jaune more than it really should.

Eerie whispers in the wind.

Flickering shadows.

No thanks to living with a family dominated with women, his early childhood and teenage years have been full of times when his sisters wanted to tease him and more than often frighten him for their own amusement. It was an unfortunate side-effect that they had cultivated his fear of horror stories and anything remotely similar to it in reality.

Still, he doubted that he would've stopped even if he asked them to either way.

Pyrrha's presence was the only reason why he didn't back away immediately and just decide to cut his loses right now. In fact, it took a bit of willpower to just not call back-up and tell them to deal with the problem in his stead.

"As much as I currently wish that it was, perhaps some sort of town gathering or something, I believe we have a problem here" the Huntress said seeing one particular object in the distance making her frown.

Jaune turned and activated his aura slightly to zoom into what she was looking at as well.

"Is that…?"

"Perhaps."

Looking a closer look with her, they soon discovered a certain truck and in it, ores that looked surprisingly dull if anything. Contrary to the ores' plain appearance, Jaune knew the possible value it could have to the larger world itself. That is, if a certain craftsman's hunch was right.

Still, this didn't stop him from feeling that there were things around him that were…off. Why would everyone disappear without a trace so suddenly to extent that they would leave things behind? There were items shattered all around the streets and there would be at least piles of things kicked around if people ran.

But there wasn't. Everything he saw felt more 'off' the more he thought about it. There was an inherit 'wrongness' that was creeping around enough that he would want to avoid the place otherwise.

"This is probably what Ash wants from us" he said before moving to the front of the truck and opening the driver's door. He started to look around to see if he could find something useful. Similarly, Pyrrha opened the door on the other side and started searching there as well.

A minute passed and he found nothing but rather spoiled food and guns under the seats that had been left untouched. His partner while finding another set of guns also found a couple of notes that were written messages to and from Ash about their job and how much they would be paid.

Jaune took the written contract that the drivers must have made with Ash and noticed something. The payment they were getting for doing the job was a lot more than the price he was paying them to escort them to Signal. Meanwhile, Pyrrha was reading through some of the other messages.

"It looks like Ash was planning to scam the drivers for 'unsanctioned smuggling' to cut down the prices he needs to pay them. The high payment for the job was just to get those who are really desperate for the money to accept it to begin with" she commented before handing the note to him as well.

Jaune started reading the note as well and couldn't believe how easily someone could ruin another person's life like this.

 _'Now that you have accepted the job from me personally, know this, the job is illegal and I'll be dammed if you dare back out now. I know about your money problems and I also know that you can't quit. However, considering my position, I am a lot less likely to be punished for the 'unsanctioned smuggling' of goods that I have proof you are doing right now._

 _All it takes is a previously 'misguided' person like me to 'reconfirm' my actions for you all to be thrown in jail. Sure I might be fined and some people might be pissed, but I doubt you will see the light of day again if I do._

 _Besides, the payment itself was stupidly high to the point that I didn't expect any suckers to fall for it. The real payment will be a generous 10% of what you signed with the other 90% being used to keep your sorry asses out of prison. – Signed, A'_

"Wow…didn't think I would actually see someone blackmail another person so shamelessly like this" he admitted with a good deal of surprise, "I wouldn't think that something like this would be allowed to happen."

Pyrrha rolled her eyes, "I'm surprised I didn't think that he _wouldn't_ do such a thing. Threatening others like this is another reason why he's not a popular person to deal with and it's only through being useful that he has been tolerated."

"I'm surprised that _you_ would want to deal with him knowing your personality is the opposite of his."

"I like to make a point when someone blatantly tries to blackmail me without warning" she said with a scowl to the reminder.

Worry filled him for a moment before she added, "Well, he won't be scamming us anytime soon after what I did to him in return. Besides there are a lot of people who have enough evidence that would get him kicked out of Signal if they ever decided to. The only good part of that guy is how skilled he is at making things. Like I said, he's tolerated not respected."

"Well I can see a way to get a bigger discount than usual if I used this..." she drawled, tapping her fingers in thought.

"A further discount would be nice but there seems to be a more important issue we have to deal with right now" he waved his hand at the empty town.

"Right" coughing before she sheepishly admitted, "I haven't actually gotten much experience in investigating things so…I'm a bit clueless on what to do right now beside searching each place and seeing if we can find anything."

"That's the extent of my knowledge to investigation as well" he murmured as well.

She hummed thoughtfully, "But there's a whole lot of other things that a Hunter is known to do, though admittedly, most of it is just combating Grimm. We also have the responsibility to maintain peace and order wherever we are and also aid in investigating cases that are too dangerous for anyone else."

Thinking back on the recent stop from that nearby town he agreed, "Yeah, some places are just better when Hunters are there"

Closing the truck door but not before checking how much fuel it still had (might need to make a quick getaway after all) Jaune turned to the reasonably sized mining town that they still needed to search through because just in case.

"What do you think are the chances that everyone in this town just decided to leave on their own on will return?" he queried hopefully. He really didn't want to have to go through every single building and search through them all.

Not only would it take them at least a day to get through all of them, who knows what would happen the longer they stayed. The whole town was bleak enough already and dampened his mood a lot by just being here.

Miserably he didn't get the answer he wanted.

"Highly unlikely, this place is an economic boon to any mining related business in the whole region and wouldn't be just abandoned just like that. More than that, _no one_ had contacted anyone saying that this place was abandoned. Even with the recent increase in Grimm numbers, there would be _someone_ who would come and go from town to town to see what's going on beyond just telegramming everything" she bit her lip as she uttered that last worry to him.

"Are you sure that they might just have been eaten by a Grimm?"

"Any messengers or the whole town?" she cynically asked.

He pointed at the shattered objects on the streets, "Doubt it. No tracks of Grimm going through or any signs of people running away in panic. Not to mention there isn't enough damage for any Grimm attack here, well at least the _normal_ kind."

"That makes sense" but still she furrowed her eyebrows, "But why do I get a feeling that there's something wrong with what I see?"

"Because there is something wrong" he grimly gestured at the positioning of the dropped objects, "One, there are _way_ too many things left on the ground and two, it looks like they all just have been dropped…and nothing more. No one moved anything at all."

"That is indeed strange…and most worrying."

"And our job is to investigate this place" she paused, "But I am wondering _why_ we haven't gotten an emergency mission or something about how there is _no one_ in this town at all. Is the CCT towers down here as well?"

"Great" the Huntsman gritted his teeth, " _Just great_. No one will know if we just disappeared here as well."

"It isn't that bad" he heard someone protest but he really didn't believe her. This was just the _perfect_ set-up for a horror story. Worse, it was likely to be a horror story starring _them_ as the main characters.

Pinching his nose bridge he muttered out, "Better not experience myself being dragged underground. God I am so going to get a phobia of that if it happens to me."

"Jaune?" a hand waved in front of his eyes, "Are you okay? You blanked out for a second there."

"No problems at all" Jaune exhaled a breath to try and relieve an upcoming headache before it could come, "Anyway, anything else you noticed. We need to make a list of what happened and what seems off to both of us before we report this in either way."

Pyrrha tapped the air (which he knew she was interacting with her A.U.R.A system) before writing in the few things she indeed noticed. So far, it was the fact that there were items shattered around the streets and no signs of Grimm attack and yet the town being abandoned for whatsoever reason.

"There isn't a lot of points right now but I suppose we would need to enter all the houses to find out what happened or at least get a clearer image" she voice how uncomfortable she was to the upcoming task, "And I know for a fact the drivers that Ash hired would rather drive away than try and make it off on foot. More than that, I noticed that there are a number of vehicles in the town left untouched."

"Your semblance?" he inquired.

"Yes, I can somewhat sense the general shape of the metals if I concentrate enough. And I can tell you that the automatic machines are still working although a couple broke down needing maintenance here and there" she spoke while pointing in a couple of directions he made note of.

Jaune wasn't the best at remembering things but he knew at least to try and remember as much as possible about the small things that may come to play later. That was one of the reasons why he was good at improvising plans out of nowhere. People tend to forget the small stuff in favour of what is obvious.

"Are there any chances that everyone just took off in _other_ vehicles and the ones you sensed are the ones left behind?"

She shook her head, "I doubt it. Vehicles outside the city area are _expensive_ to have. A place like this would only be able to afford a dozen before their budgets stop them from buying more to have. And why would someone run away leaving behind what is considered a significant amount of money?"

In the blonde's mind, a memory of the few times he _saw_ a vehicle of any kind flashed through his eyes. Then various other more unpleasant memories of seeing people exploit and cheat each other for money flashed through as well.

"I suppose that the drivers Ash hired wouldn't just abandon a job just like that when they could've just left with truck, ores and all" the blonde sighed listening to that reasoning that made sense only due to human greed, "He did mention the job would also involve us stopping _them_ from taking off with all the ores."

"Indeed, and seeing the type of people the craftsman would hire would be those he would casually threatened, they are likely to just take and steal away the materials rather than just leave without it" the red-head nodded to his words.

However she paused before muttering at a level that he could barely hear her, "But if there was something that forced them to leave or…"

"Anyway, we should start searching through each of the buildings to see if we can find something to report to" she suggested.

"Right. We should stick together just in case, it wouldn't be funny if one of us disappeared and the other is forced to leave partnerless" Jaune nodded before heading towards the closest building that seemed to be a small house and opened the door before scanning what he could see.

"Seems normal enough. Hard to believe that we would be breaking into homes and willingly like this" he whispered to himself though he had no doubt that Pyrrha could hear him.

"Remember that it's only to find out what's going on…and don't steal anything. That would just be rude and disrespectful" she added after a moment of scanning the corridor to the first room of the house.

Jaune decided he wasn't going to step in immediately but he wasn't going to let Pyrrha take that first step in. That was only tempting fate enough to ensure that he would step onto an obvious trap that he could've avoided otherwise. However when the Huntsman realised that there wasn't going to be something going to harm him as far as he knew, he summoned an Aura Soldier to do that for him.

"Aura Soldier activate."

 **[Aura Soldier has activated]**

 **[Please select pre-set to be deployed]**

 **[Please select number of Aura Soldiers to be deployed]**

"Set. Knight-1."

A flash of light later, an Aura Soldier appeared in front of him ready for combat. It quickly lowered its weapon when it realised that there were no enemies to fight. Even so it wasn't as remarkable or reactive as an actual Hunter; it at least matched the skill of common guards and soldiers.

If this was the amount of progress the core AI of the skill could have in a few months, then what would it look like years ahead? Would years of experience allow it to match the strongest Hunters in battle? He didn't know. Fortunately enough, his way of using them was good enough that he never needed to edit any of the command prompts that were part of the original problem he had with them if he recalled correctly.

" _Really_ Jaune?" his partner sent him an unimpressed look.

"Not taking _any_ chances here" he grunted back. He wasn't going to let anything happen to him nor his partner. And if that meant being beyond the normal paranoia that Hunters naturally developed…well he just needed to prepare for everything.

"Move forward" he pointed to Knight-1 to follow.

Knight-1 took a step into the house and Jaune openly sighed when nothing happened but remembered that some traps may be time delayed in some way. When the Huntress tried to pass him, he stopped her with a raised fist before waiting a few seconds for anything to happen…and nothing did.

Relieved, Jaune took an experimental step in and found that nothing happened to him as well. Pyrrha also took a step into the now abandoned home with a roll of her eyes. She was surprisingly casual though that may be due to him being more sensitive to dangerous things than her.

 _'Still, this place just looks like a normal house and that may be a problem if it does decide to eat us_ ' he mused before shaking his head, following after his partner.

The first thing he noticed of the interiors was that the place was a bit dusty. But that was clear from the type of town this was even if no one seemed to disappear. Mining and processing ores was a dirty business and he wasn't surprised of the smudges of dirt here and there. In fact, the entire place took a darker hue than usual thanks to the type of place they were in right now.

Despite this, the Huntsman could tell that this home was not well-lived in. Packets of discarded food cans and the general trash shattered around made it feel like someone was using this place to sleep and eat in and nothing more. Considering the living standards of those outside cities and major hubs, it wasn't surprising.

"No one has been in here for a while" commented Pyrrha taking a look at the dirty dishes.

"Around a week you supposed? That would match the time everyone seemed to have disappear."

"No" she denied, "Around three weeks but it may be just this place. I don't think we have much to see here."

Nodding silently, Jaune started exiting the house towards Knight-1 that was on guard at the entrance. The place was small enough for two people; he really didn't want to make things more cramped with three humanoids in the small house.

They headed to the next house. Stopping for a moment, he took a look at the line of buildings noting that they looked like huts than houses. Some of them, the furthest away from the mines and machinery were made of wood! However, this trend changed towards stone and concrete the closer they got.

It looked as if this mining town was built before they figured out it was prime spot for a mine.

"Well, one down and many more places to search through" he muttered to himself. It still didn't change the feeling that something bad may happen. Something _always_ happened in circumstances like this.

He hoped the Guild would send for their bodies if they ended up dead because of this.

-o-

Cinder Fall, Guildmaster of the Guild Association really wished she could just _burn_ all the paperwork that seemed to be spawning every time she looked away. Better yet, push the paperwork onto one of the _Masters_ of the Guild like Ozpin or select members of the Vale Council that used their influence to get into _her_ organisation.

She, in a dark way knew that even if the Grimm managed to destroy humanity once and for all, the paperwork would somehow survive. At least by then, it would be _their_ problem she suspected if the Grimm were really that intelligent, they would somehow manage to transfer paperwork into the afterlife just to spite then.

"Three piles of summarises of the going-on in the city of Vale, another pile for the foreign information that had been gathered this week and another _ten_ piles from everywhere else in Vale" her eye twitched.

While she was obviously the most exceptional Huntress and worker that anyone would wish to have, even she had her own limits to her patients on the useless rabble. Sure Ozpin may play kindly dictator to the elite Hunters but _she_ held the power with all the untapped potentials all across Vale with her Guild.

Pressing the call button she spoke into the speaker, "Jenny, please make an appointment with the Counter-Information Department Head in around 5 minutes. I need him in my office soon. Also get the Official Worker Department Head…actually get around half of them in my office."

Better yet, she had at least for the foresight to make sure that she had the ability to pawn off most of the paperwork to other people instead of a single person. Poor Glynda had to burden all the work that man skipped on.

 _"Half of them Guildmaster Fall?"_ the quite dull secretary asked. She would need to replace her with a more intelligent one. Too bad that getting highly loyal and intelligent secretaries were more difficult than they should be.

Hmm…she should send a request or better yet, order the soon to be defunct secretary to do it. No need to waste her own time.

"Yes. Please also search for your replacement by the end of the week. If they are not more competent than you, I suggest leaving the Kingdom."

 _"…Understood"_ the other side gulped in fear of her power. It was remarkable to her own influence that she was able to bypass those annoying 'unions' that seem to crop up often to hinder her plans.

With that done the 'retired' Huntress look down at her still high stacks of paperwork and the fact it would take an hour for all the department heads in her organisation to get to her office. Oh why did she put so many security measures to stop people from assassinating her when _she_ could get through them with ease?

"Perhaps I should occupy my time with some leisuring blackmailing against the Schnee Family. Wasn't one of them at Beacon right now? I think I could make her change or outfit into a clown costume…" she hummed to herself. Yes it _would_ be amusing to do that.

Not to mention Ozpin doesn't really care that much about what his students does as long as they don't screw anything up too badly. Still, that Glynda woman might interfere which mean she had to remove her from interfering…

"I suppose some information to make the damn Wizard squirm for her will be enough to get her cooperation" she considered.

Cinder was paranoid enough to not trust people to do her work for her no matter how tempting at times and especially was enough to not give anyone access to sensitive information unless she absolutely had to. One person was really the best to keep a secret, why add more when she alone could tell with the paperwork?

At least that was her line of thinking until now. Months of preparations on the mission to Mountain Glenn left her with a considerable amount of extra paperwork on top of her already hefty amount.

"Still, it would be _nice_ if I could actually hire someone to sort through most of the…rabble!" she glared down at the 'innocent' pieces of paper. God, they had the A.U.R.A system for _decades_ , so why isn't their paperwork digital as well?

Right, because she was way too thorough in making sure that The Guild would be prepared as possible against any hackers that might want to snoop around in classified information that she may have.

Considering that most classified information that goes her way are usually some of the stuff of nightmares that would frighten normal people, she _really_ didn't want anyone to know about the things that live in the shadows of the Kingdom of Vale. Unlike what most would think, there were a lot more types of Grimm out there and the worse ones have a negative effect on reality itself by just existing.

Nightmare Grimm especially were a pain to deal with. Reality bending powers aside, they have a tendency to 'play' with their prey before 'drowning' them with insanity and madness. Fortunately, those types of Grimm were rarer than finding blackmail on Ozpin.

Of course, that may be due to being the _person_ who designed most of their security to begin with. The old General Ironwood was snooping around a bit too much on their files for her liking…that and the rumours of _artificial_ Aura were getting more frequent on her spy reports on Atlas.

"Curse my foresight" she pressed her lips in a frown. She did not groan. Someone of her positon would _not_ groan or moan at the stacks of paperwork that she had now to deal with.

"Damn Ozpin…' _coordinate our forces together for the greater good'_ my ass."

And why hadn't that secretary brought everyone to her office?

She needed to get most the paperwork out of her hands and into theirs so she would actually have time to do anything important. Like looking over some of the interesting rumours…or making sure that any idiot wouldn't try to become a Warlord just because they had a bit of Aura now.

Banditry had become a minor problem ever since the process of developing a good quantity of low ranking Hunters became. Of course, not only do those bandits have to deal with Grimm but also their A.U.R.A or A.R.C systems capturing any heavy crimes they commit near CCT towers. You would have an easier time getting into organised crime and that was saying a lot.

Roman Torchwick was never caught only because he was on her payroll…something Ozpin knew and ignored. She wasn't foolish enough that there wouldn't be others, aided else skilled enough to fool the system that had needed a serious update for a while. Cinder had little doubt if the man could, he would've broken off from her.

Still, while the man was quite arrogant, his own assistant Neopolitan was highly competent and if not for the surprising loyalty to the man, she would've stolen her away for herself already. The ability to create illusions on her level was indeed a rare one and quite potent without the means to counter it.

"Hmm…I should put a request to find an illusion semblance user then even if it's quite hard to come by" the reward would otherwise be more than worth it. The things she could do with such a person…

Ignoring the other paperwork that would need to be done sooner or later, she looked through the folder of 'possible' assistants that she could hire. Unlike a secretary, this person would intimacy know her every action…something that is potentially dangerous to her.

Therefore a portion of the applications are of people who would possibly be good for the job rather than those who applied via recommendations from those 'trusted' in the Guild and otherwise others with enough influence to try their hand.

Spies were a troublesome problem to deal with and she even tolerated a few just to feed false information only because they are quite skilled in their jobs for her. Looking through the list, she couldn't help but to snort because the majority of the 'choices' she had were almost all plants from various different powers.

"Let's see…Sunny Lithe, George Greenland, Milly Whitefields, _Bronze Copper_. God sometimes I really hate the naming traditions all of Remnant decided to pick up after the Great War."

Cinder Fall was a perfectly respectable name and was traditional as any could be. However there were only so many names that matched with colours in some way unless you got…creative.

"Murky Hillton, Ozzy Mobit, Mercury Black…wasn't he the kid the killed his assassin father?" she mused. Why on _remnant_ would she even consider him as a candidate as an assistant.

While skilful enough in combat it seems, he was arrogant enough to proclaim his skills by killing a man drunk enough that the morgue originally proclaimed his death via alcohol poisoning. The only reason _anyone_ knew that the elder Black's death was a murder was because his _son_ declared it while bragging while drunk.

That and it didn't exactly help his cause when he stumbled in with stumps for legs. It appeared that even drunk to the point he died, he was skilled enough to cripple the assailant. It says wonders of the _luck_ the boy had dealing with killing his father by _just_ losing his legs.

Not exactly someone she would want to rely on. Still, it seems he managed to figure out how to use his father's own connection to which several were part of the Guild to get his application in like this.

Making a note to shifty dispose of him, she moved on. The father may be somewhat reliable as an assassin but the son definitely wasn't. Why take a chance for someone minor to ruin everything? Then again, she _could_ use him it was just not worth the investment that would certainly need to be personal to reign him in.

"Mary Seastone, Emerald Sustrai…" she paused at this 'application'.

There wasn't much information and the image taken was quite blurred. However what caught her eye were the words, 'Illusion Based Semblance'.

Her mouth perked up as she whispered, "Well isn't this interesting."

She found a new tool.

-o-

Pressing his hand onto one of the tables, Jaune swept off a line of dust.

 _'Not as much dust as I expected. But that may be just because everywhere in this place had been abandoned for a week The attics and basements have a lot more dust on the factor they haven't been cleaned recently'_ he thought.

"Pyrrha! Found anything interesting?" he asked halfway to shouting.

"Nothing yet!" he heard back from above. It looked like she finished searching the apartment room next to him and went up a level.

Looking around once more, he took to studying the few picture frames that were on a desk. It was of a man happily carrying two sets of small bodies on him. The picture next to that was of a family smiling together in front of the camera.

"Hopefully we can figure something up. And I hope that we can still save you" he uttered with a small vow to do whatever he could to save them if it was possible.

He couldn't vow to save these missing people no matter what. He didn't even know if they were still alive and breaking a vow just like that wouldn't befit him as a member of the Arc Family.

Vows were taken especially seriously in the family because what was the point of vows and promises when no one trusted your word. Due to this, the people of the Arc Family were usually trusted above most other Hunters when they took a vow to protect or aid someone.

 _'Not that many people trusted my word aside from Pyrrha back then. Disappointing people is a quick way for them to stop trusting you even if you keep your word'_ he remember the couple of times some people tried to scam him. Thankfully they were found out quickly by Gred and punished.

The Guild seemed to take their laws and order seriously enough that even the more ruddy Hunters obey them out of fear. They were such a powerful organisation that they had the resources to suppose and gather Hunters…and control them as well. Before the Guild, Hunters were more like wandering helpers who helped when they could.

As such, there were a lot of people further away from the rest of civilisation that didn't know what a Hunter was…or believed that Hunters were bandits thanks to the acts of a few of them.

Yeah, reading such a history made Jaune really hate Hunters that exploited their abilities over other people.

A minute later, while still lost in his mind, he realised that he finished searching this place.

"Looks like I'm done here" he said before leaving through the door.

The current building they were in was quite large. It was composed of several smaller apartments that seemed to have been stuck together before a 'gateway' to each of those apartments was made. It looked really strange and Jaune wondered why they hadn't just built one large building.

But due to this, Pyrrha argued successfully that they should split to search inside. There wasn't that much room in each apartment for two people to search effectively at the same time. Furthermore, she opted to comment that _no_ , he couldn't send Knight-1 to 'guard' her. She was more than capable of dealing with anything that the Aura Soldier could.

Therefore he set Knight-1 to follow him and guard the door instead which in the mind of his partner meant more security for him. Jaune could still remember the rather one-sided argument that they had over this. One that he lost…badly in all accounts.

 _"No Jaune" Pyrrha sighed while resisting the urge to face-palm, "I'm not going to let you send one of your Aura Soldiers to 'guard' me. Not now, not ever."_

 _"But doing so would-"_

 _"Do nothing" a glare was used. It was super effective, "We both know the strength of one of your Aura Soldiers and even your strongest one can't match me…while also leaving you more vulnerable to any attacks."_

 _"It would be better to let it follow you instead and guard_ you _whom I am much more worried about than myself."_

 _Jaune opened his mouth to protest but she cut him off again, "You know, I thought you trusted me more than this. Doing this is the same as saying that I'm too_ weak _to protect my own wellbeing."_

 _"You know I don't mean that!"_

 _"Of course" she smiled, "It's not like you would try to 'protect' me just because I'm a woman right? It's not like you've gained enough confident that by trying to repay me, you would undermine my hard work right?"_

 _"Ugh…"_

 _"Did you say something?" she still smiled at Jaune but it was one that he saw only a few times. To people who managed to piss her off…to think that he would make a mistake to have that smile directed to him._

 _"I think I said that I_ fully _trust you in anything you think you may be able to do and that I can_ trust _you to deal with anything that I can."_

 _"Good boy" she patted his cheek before leaving. Incidentally, he walked her hips sway a bit before turning away realising what he was doing. He wasn't a pervert! This is a natural 17 year old teenage man's reaction!_

Due to that one sided declaration that they would split up in the building to search it out quicker, Jaune ended up on his own. Well, not completely alone but close to it. He still had Knight-1 as a companion for now.

However he felt a bit lonely in all honesty. Even though, he was usually excited when Pyrrha would trust him enough to let him do his own thing by himself, Jaune had a bad feeling in his gut that something bad was going to happen. Not to mention, he could tell that _Pyrrha_ was having bad feelings about this town as well.

She was probably even more affected than him seeing that she was very much more skilled than him in sensing danger and this entire town reeked with it even if it was only in small quantities. Jaune was surprised that she managed to appear completely unaffected by it.

"Well, I suppose she _did_ say that she was nearing B rank recently…I suppose the rank difference is enough to make these kinds of situations easier to deal with" he hypothesized. C rank and B rank had a much larger difference than D rank and C rank. Not only did you need twice the qualification in stats with the former, gaining more stats at that point is even more difficult.

It is the main reason why most Hunters ended up stuck at C rank despite years of experience and training. The blonde didn't know if he would be one such people that would eternally be stalled or would progress beyond that. The A rank skill, the Aura Soldier skill he had was dependent on how strong his body was and if he couldn't go beyond C rank than the skill wouldn't as well.

The skill itself was determined A rank partly because of its potential and because of how advanced the AI was in developing itself. Even Atlas was experimenting with the skill to advance their machine AIs to the next stage. The fact that his Aura Soldiers despite having its AI 'reset' four months ago was much more advanced than two years of work before was telling to how much he screwed up before.

 _'Losers are beggars I suppose. For now, I have to focus on getting stronger and naturally using the skill would advance it to become better with time.'_

But at the same time, Jaune was a bit surprised that his Aura Soldier could actually manage to follow someone else besides him at this point. He wasn't sure on the AI on the development side of things but he still remembered and partly considered the skill to need to force him to manually take control often to not screw up _walking_.

There wasn't exactly much difference between 'creator' and 'everyone else' to 'enemy' to the AI but it was getting there…if slowly.

 _'No difference to teaching someone with amnesia I think'_ he considered.

While he was on the subject of his Aura Soldier skill, a few certain thoughts crept up on him despite situation.

 _'I wonder if I can further modify the Aura Soldier skill. I mean sure, I can create expendable minions that are somewhat barely better than just attacking which is fine and all but things are becoming too hectic'_ his mind wandered off, _'With the way the AI seems to be developing, I might be able to changes things up soon so they're more automated.'_

Eventually his thought process ended with the last drawer being opened, searched and closed with nothing more to say but a blush. He didn't need to know about the secret _toys_ that people kept in their rooms.

At the same time, he found that he had fully searched the room and decided to move on. Moving over to the next room, he noted that Pyrrha had already searched through that place and decided to go up a level where the red-head was.

With that in mind, he started walking up the steps to the next level of rooms where Pyrrha seemed to be.

"I'm coming up Pyrrha! Found anything yet?"

A pause.

"Jaune, honestly I _am_ fine and nothing has happened to me" she started saying clearly frustrated. To be fair, he _did_ ask her to reply every minute or so constantly. They might be separated only by a bit but he was careful enough to know that a constant knowledge of each other was essential in these cases.

He could feel that she was equally embarrassed and flattered that someone was overly overprotective of her. Or rather, someone _could_ be protective of her to the extent he seems to be getting into. Knowing about a bit of her history, he wasn't surprised that many believed she could handle everything that came her way.

Jaune was halfway up the stair when he asked again, "Are you really fine? Normally you're a lot calmer. And I was just asking if you found anything."

"Which is implied if I'm perfectly safe or not" she huffed, "Is this you getting back at me when I refused to stop overprotecting you back then? Nothing so far-rrrraaaaaa!"

The Arc froze enough for the scream to echo once before _sprinting_ towards the direction of the scream and barged into the lock door. He whined when he didn't exactly slam through it all at once like he expected.

"PYRRHA!" he screamed, still hearing the end of a scream.

Ignoring the obstacle that was a door by slamming through it via Knight-1, he found his partner on the ground staring at the walls…and more importantly, was safe.

 _'Thank god nothing happened…'_ he breathed out a sigh of relief. But what had caused her to be frightened to begin with?

The wall that was perfectly normal and nothing else looked to be out of place.

"Pyrrha, what happened?" he asked concern more than ever now. There was this _look_ that made him gulp on instinct but more important, there seemed to be _nothing_ wrong with the room that they were in.

"I think you were _right_ that something bad is happening in this town" she slowly allowed herself to whisper, "I _saw_ the wall bleed bloody handprints. _So many handprints coming to consume me…_ "

He took another look at the wall. Nothing there. He looked back at Pyrrha to hear any other explanation.

"Pyrrha-" Jaune cautiously started to ask.

"I know what I saw!" she shouted, cutting him off. The Huntsman remained silent knowing that if he said something now also meant getting beaten up via angry homicidal Huntress that can't take a 'no' for an answer currently.

 _The air was light but the gentle breeze fluttered here and there._

 _The wind moved gently but was laced with malice._

 _And as it approached…_

 _It whispered one thing._

 _"Heeeeellooo~"_

"HOLY FUCK!"

Jaune screamed as he turned and slashed-

Nothing?

He checked again with frantic fear heightening his already well-tuned senses to _everywhere_ to try and find what had caused him to feel like something was breathing down the back of his neck.

It didn't help that he heard giggling off to the furthest he could hear in the distances.

"That was creepy, really _creepy_ on too many levels."

"Jaune?" the red-head looked worryingly at him. It was no surprise considering he just _attacked_ something out of nowhere. It was too bad on his credibility that Pyrrha didn't see anything…just like he didn't see whatever frightened her.

He smiled but it wasn't a good one, "I _think_ I heard a voice right behind me…on my neck. There was nothing there…and well I panicked and attacked because-"

"Not doing so would get you killed when you could've avoided it" she finished.

"I didn't hear anything" the Huntress spoke up for a moment.

This time an amused look appeared on his face, "Just like I didn't see anything that made _you_ scared shitless. It's too bad that I didn't actually see you scream. I bet I would've gotten a lot of money for a photo or better yet, a video of 'Pyrrha Nikos screaming in fear!'"

"JAUNE!"

Their hands were still on their weapons.

-o-

It started with a flicker of light.

"Huh. That's strange" Jaune Arc casually handled a light bulb in his hand, coated with a bit of Aura just in case and inspected it for any damages to its wire. He found none and yet after another moment, it flickered again.

But only it but also, _every_ other light source in the room and possibly the building they were in. Letting go of the handing light bulb, he made his way to Pyrrha at a reasonable pace to talk about if anything happened or if this was another consequence.

The blonde started speaking as before he opened the door, "Pyrrha, are the lights flickering on your side of the building as well-"

He couldn't help but to freeze. There was a statue. A stone statue in the form of an…angel? Frowning at the peculiar sight of a status being presence in the building, he walked passed it and through to the next door before the lights decided to flicker again and he heard…grinding?

Turning around, Jaune froze a second time seeing that the status had turned to his direction. And not only that, its hands were no longer covering its face.

"This is creepy. _Really_ creepy even if it's a joke" he said after a moment, not daring to even blink.

The lights flickered on and off again.

And the angel statue _moved_.

"WHAT THE HELL?!"

One of its arms was extending towards him. He had no idea of what was going on but he had a feeling that getting touched by the statue was a bad idea. Drawing his sword, Jaune slashed once and found that his sword bounced off.

Jaune _blinked_ in surprise-

"CRAP! Crap, crap, crap, crap. No blinking then. Do I need to keep a line of sight for it to not move?" he muttered as he backed away even more when he _blinkeds_. The statue was frighteningly closer to his face when it moved and he saw the expression of the angel statue changed to one of a _demon_ out of his blood.

Whatever this was, it was no Grimm and Jaune had little interest in battling it. Hell it might not be real…though he rather not take the chance if was actually was.

 _'More importantly, where is Pyrrha?'_ he thought before concluding that it was likely that she got out of here safely considering the lack of blood or damage to the surroundings if a battle took place here.

The Huntsman decided it was best to get out of here as soon as possible. Yes, he needed to exit this place which was…just behind that angel statue…which was blocking the way.

"Crap."

The lights flickered again.

"HOLY-shit that is scary as hell. Scarier than one of those jump scares in those horror games Rosemary liked to play around me all the time."

He didn't dare take his eyes off the creature but in a very bad twist, he knew that he _needed_ it to move closer to him for there to be an escape route. Sure he could destroy a wall to get out, but to do so without taking his eyes off the creature for a moment?

He wasn't that fast.

The lights flickered off and on.

Jaune had to stop himself from flinching and by extension blink at the sight of a single stone hand almost touching his face. Whatever this creature wanted or did, it needed to do so while he wasn't looking at it. Not to mention, now there was a _small_ gap to get through.

Feeling the back of the wall already he cursed, _'I don't think I can actually get out of here after the next flicker without it…doing whatever it wants to me.'_

And knowing the frequency of the lights strangely flickering off and not was quite high, Jaune made do and moved to push himself through the gap and escape even as he hesitated to get near the statue which only looked more and more demonic the more it 'moved'.

 _'Right, better move quickly now.'_

Side-stepping through with some ease, Jaune almost let out a sigh of relief as he almost managed to get pass the angel statue.

Then the lights flickered once more.

His left arm felt like it was breaking and that was _with_ a measure of Aura running through it to prevent that from happen. In horror, Jaune turned slowly to look at the expression of the angel statue that managed to catch him.

 _Joy_.

 _Glee_.

 _Triumphant._

Jaune let out a whimper seeing that. He started feeling the _pressure_ of the grip on his arm getting harder and even felt that _something_ was going wrong. God, where was Pyrrha? Actually, where was his _Aura Soldier_ in all of this?

Even as his arm was breaking as far as he knew, Jaune couldn't help but to frown at the current situation he was in. He tried to meet up with his partner and found this statue…which seems to be grabbing onto him with no signs of his partner and even his Aura Soldier which he _knew_ existed due to the connection.

"An illusion?" he wondered with a pitch higher than normal of course. If anyone else was with him, they could've compared his voice to a mouse squeaking.

Of course, the only reason why he would even _reason_ that it might be an illusion was due to all the abnormal things that were happening, _appeared_ to have happened before disappearing without a trace. This might be the same but he was sure feeling the pain right now.

Therefore, Jaune reasoned he wasn't in _actual_ harm right now, as long as he kept his eye on the statue in front of him...however long that may take.

Then the lights flickered and he lost sight of the statue for a moment more.

The grip on his arm tightened.

"This is bad."

 _And again._

Another hand grabbed onto his shoulder.

" _Really_ bad" he repeated.

 _And again._

 _And again._

 _And again._

 _And again._

Jaune Arc didn't know how long he was standing there, staring unblinkingly at the demonic angel statue but eventually when the lights flickered one last time and he lost sight of it, it disappeared.

"What…just happened?" he wandered. He could still feel the pain all over his body as his bones were slowly being crushed. It wouldn't call it torture, getting mauled by a Grimm was far worse but he couldn't say he wasn't shaken by it.

It didn't help that when he checked his body, all the wounds were still there.

-o-

"Jaune, I have to ask a rather sensitive question to you that I might not be polite to ask."

Pyrrha Nikos in all her glory and power stood defiantly in front of Jaune with her black aura appearing only slightly despite the power behind it. It was really a show of how much control over her Aura she had.

"Of course" he tried to smile back to the situation they were in but ended up making it more apparent that he was shaking in fear, "I think I have the same question as you but go for it."

"I believe we are being ' _attacked'_ by ghosts right? Ghosts that…really don't do anything to us besides scare us…so why are you so scared of them" she questioned trying to be extremely polite but failing.

"Y-Yes. I think I can s-see that as well."

He really tried to not stutter in what was happening. But when the… _ghosts_ passed through his body, he couldn't help but remember the old possession ghost stories that several of his sisters liked to read aloud before bed.

His sisters were strange that they liked horror/romance stories the most.

She frowned, "You still didn't answer me"

"Bad childhood with too many ghost and _many_ other horror stories" he gasped as _another_ ghost slipped through him. He moved closer to the walls to try and avoid them more but they seem to be attracted to him.

Jaune could really only keep his reactions down as unlike the _statue_ , these ghosts didn't seem to affect them physically at all meaning that they were in no danger at all. It was too bad that Jaune really didn't like the situation they were in either way.

Give him a Grimm fight to the death any day over this.

-o-

"I swear that we passed through this corridor before…as well as this door…and this room…is it me or are we going in a loop? That or this building is long to the point that it might be wider than the entire town" Jaune opened another door, this time to the side but saw the same thing as the last three doors.

"Yes but it seems like everything else, we can't do much against what is happening" Pyrrha reasoned while opening some drawers though he had no idea on _why_ she would keep on doing that.

He stared at her for a few moments before giving up.

"Why are you searching through the _same_ drawers?" he finally asked.

The red-head didn't look at him as she answered, "To see if these are _really_ the same rooms or just different ones that all look the same."

"And?"

She pulled out a couple of books and other tools from the drawer which didn't answer anything. However she did sigh before saying, "Sometimes the things in the drawer are the same and sometimes they aren't. I'm getting confused the more I think about it."

"Hmm…" he let out without thinking much, "How long do you think we'll be stuck in here? I mean, the ghosts' thing weren't that threatening and lasted for only a few minutes."

"Who knows" she shrugged, "Maybe we have to keep on going and after a certain point, she escape."

With no other suggestions, they just did that…after testing trying to break out of the building which did nothing of course.

-o-

"Huh…you really don't look that bad in blue Pyrrha" Jaune complimented the Huntress which along with the rest of his perception had their colour reversed though he had no idea _what_ colours switched with which completely.

The walls looked black now and even light became its opposite to his sight. In contrast their bodies became much lighter to the much darker background which…was an unusual experience he had to say.

Jaune accidentally knocked over a lamp because he wasn't used to the look and didn't adapt quickly. But it still didn't stop him from taking looks of his partner which just looked… _weird_ with the colour scheme this effect was making her have.

"Can you stop staring Jaune?"

He coughed, "Sorry. You look…really different."

She rolled her eyes (huff and all) before taking a look up and down his body as well.

"Black and brown really isn't your colour Jaune" she smirked.

"Hey! And how does blonde go to brown?" he quickly grabbed and pulled down some of his hair to get a better look. He made a soundless noise from his mouth seeing that his (proud) hair turned so… _not Arc_.

"I didn't think you were the type to worry over your hair" Pyrrha blinked in surprise, seeing his reaction.

"Arcs are known to have _blonde_ hair. It's super strange, weird and _heretical_ for my hair to not be blonde" he protested though only managed to get a laugh out of her.

-o-

"Boarbatusks down the corridors!" warned Pyrrha.

Jaune immediately took action and raised his shield as well as stepped to the back-right of Knight-1 which was going to take the first blow. Said Boarbatusk started using its unique skill of throwing itself forward and rolling in a wall to attack.

The next moment, the Grimm impacted on the shield of Knight-1 which due to its force directed itself to the side to where Jaune was-

BANG!

-Which was blocked and inevitably stopped the attack to a still before Knight-1 turned and quickly dispatched the Grimm with a single strike of its sword. After that, while taking no chances, Jaune held his shield up as he and his partner waited for any more attacks.

"…."

But before that, he noticed something particular.

"No notification on the kill?" he wondered aloud. This was highly unusual. The A.U.R.A system tracked your Grimm kills no matter what. This not only prevented someone from falsifying kills but also prompted Hunters to _not_ avoid Grimm because they weren't getting paid to kill them.

"Is there something wrong with the system?"

"Perhaps though I doubt it" she looked over at him.

"I might as well quickly check just in case" he replied.

Jaune checked quickly but found nothing wrong. In fact, he felt a bit stupid to think that some error happened with the A.U.R.A system when it was more likely that something else caused the kill to not register.

Such as the Grimm not actually existing and being illusions…although Jaune wouldn't count on them _not_ being able to hurt him like the ghosts couldn't. Even if it didn't, feeling the pain itself is a good enough motivator to not get hurt fight against them.

"Three more Boarbatusks!" his partner warned before she switched her weapon into rifle mode and sniped down one of them with ease though not stopping the other two from starting their roll attack.

Taking the chance and abandoning the best defence he could have, the blonde Huntsman channelled Aura into his sword before timing it…and-

BAM!

-Cutting through the Boarbatusk like a knife to rubber. To the side, he could see Pyrrha kicking the Boarbatusk away with kick before spinning in mid-air and slashing downwards to decapitate it cleanly (much cleaner than him).

And despite killing three more Grimm, neither of them got another message from their A.U.R.A to confirm the kills making the theory that they were indeed illusions more likely. It didn't stop them from being much more alert for the next hour and finding no more Grimm attacking them.

-o-

He poked the soup and he felt warm, actually quite hot. His finger would've been burnt if he didn't use Aura to mitigate the damage while healing the slight burns his index finger gained from the 'test'.

"Unless I'm imagining things the soup is actually quite hot" his eyebrow rose to the challenge.

"It's _not_ to me. It feels really cold to me" his partner shook her head while poking her finger into the soup before grimacing, "…and I think it's rotting a bit as well. All my other senses confirm that it's hot soup but my sense of touch…"

Jaune nodded, "Strange. Even more so since I got burnt and you didn't…unless something is manipulating our senses on this as well."

The more time they spent in this mining town, the worse things seemed to get on the strangeness metre. It began with the small things, seeing things that weren't there between blinks, sounds of things that weren't that, conversations of people that weren't there before it started to move onto…stranger things.

"Anyway, like you thought, the source of whatever is happening seems to originate from the mines. We already cleared most of the buildings in this town and everywhere has been abandoned for at least a week" gripping his sword in agitation, the Huntsman was getting more twitchy as time went on.

"Are you still hesitant in directly investigating the mines?" asked Pyrrha.

"Naturally" he replied, walking to the outside and flinching when the smell of rotten meat hit him. He knew that it wasn't real but it didn't stop him from trying to cover his nose, "Whatever is causing this to happen…I'm not sure if we can survive it if we actually encounter it. It's probably worse than that strange Grimm from yesterday or in an even worse way, the reason why it exists."

Looking around, Jaune could see the various opened doors of the buildings that they entered and cleared out. He estimated that they went through almost all of the houses on the outskirts of the town and only a tenth of the ones nearest to the mines. Those tend to have really bad things happening when they go in.

The Huntress thought about for a moment before agreeing, "Yes, the strange events that are happening in this region seem to be connected to this town most prominently."

"Probably as a side effect" he didn't disagree, "But the question is still where the townspeople of this place had all gone? And how exactly the effects spread out so far to affect other towns…I don't believe _we_ had nightmares sleeping those nights right?"

"I don't think so" a frown marrowed her face, "There are other problems that are not accounted for though not all of them may be connected to what is happening here."

Jaune thought about it and concluded quickly, "The increased Grimm numbers? Isn't that caused by the lack of Hunters in the area thanks to that Mountain Glenn mission? No-hmm…yeah, I can't figure out what you mean."

Sighing in aspiration, the red-head said, "Have you noticed that despite spending a day in this town, the sun is still bright as if it's noon?"

He looked up…

"There effects seem to affect us differently but for me, it tends to more visual while for you, it affects most of your other senses. The fact that it can affect our senses to this extent means it can manipulate _reality_ itself or it is capable of creating illusions powerful enough to trap us here."

The Huntsman looked at his partner and saw the tint of fear in her eyes, "We may not actually be talking to each other but illusions. What is real? What is fake here?"

Gulping he didn't know the answer to that. That kind of question was really thing that you didn't want to think about when dealing with Grimm. With other people, Hunters that used illusion based skills or worse yet have illusion _semblances_ you could tell with time that something was wrong.

…That is, _if_ they allowed you to live till then.

But Grimm? The creatures that would do _anything_ to destroy humanity? They didn't have any needs to use illusions. Why _trap_ someone to _trick_ them when they could just use their claws and fangs to rip them apart? They were always creatures of destruction rather than creatures of trickery.

And because of that, it didn't make _sense_ that they were trapped in an illusion simply because Grimm had no need to use them.

"There's always a first for everything" he mumbled. It was either accept the fact that there was now a Grimm out there, nearby that could use illusions or accept the fact that a Grimm or whatever creature had the ability to _distort_ and _manipulate_ reality itself even in a limited fashion to imitate illusions.

Neither are good things.

He looked worryingly at Pyrrha, ignoring the voice in the back of the head not to and said, "At this point it doesn't matter if we're in an illusion or something here can bend _reality_. Our paths all end up in there."

The mines.

The place they seemed to avoid searching, either out of some instinct or something else. Jaune liked to think that it was because they wanted to completely search everywhere else first to make sure they didn't miss anything but he knew that wasn't the truth.

The mines, being the _most_ suspicious place should've been the _first_ place they investigated considering everything but they didn't. And he was pretty sure that if not he but Pyrrha wouldn't postpone doing their jobs to investigate even if he complained.

In fact, looking at it now, _why_ did they search through all the other buildings?

"Damn, something bad _will_ happen, I'm sure of it."

She hummed in agreement, seeming to know what he was thinking of and what conclusion had just had as well. He wasn't looking forward to whatever was in there. But it seems…from all the strange things that happened to them today or however long that passed that they had no choice but venture into the unknown.

And possibly to their disappearance if the rest of the town was any indication.

* * *

 **A/N: It's been a while since I updated. A lot longer than 2 weeks it seems. Well that's what I get for getting too engrossed in reading new series I suppose. I re-read the Konosuba volumes when the second season was released and found out there's a manga adaptation of the Knight & Magic series among a couple of other series. It also didn't help that the Taylor Varga (Worm fic) series quite literally passed 800K words with the author there writing 7K chapters each _day_. Madness I say.**

 **Let's see...a couple of things to note is someone actually became my Beta-reader. He's (or she) reading through the first arc right now and I have no idea when anything will get back to me. I'm honestly flattered that someone bothered to want to go through and correct my series. Another thing is that my talk with '** **Xemness The Scholar' really made me want to rewrite chapters 2 and 5...like a lot. I might do that after I finish this arc if I can find the motivation to.  
**

 **Well enough of me blabbering and onto the chapter. Yeah...kinda different from what I expected though not surprising. There are a lot of cuts between scenes which could've been spread into another chapter. Yep, nope, not going to make me suffer through all of that. I was halfway through this chapter and my motivation to write _died_ and it took a lot of small writing portions and a rather large leap here and there to finish the chapter. **

**Oh and I used a 1D100 dice to determine some of the outcomes of the scene. Jaune is rather lucky that the dice likes him this much. _Only_ one outcome went out and hurt him rather than just be an annoyance. 50 determines success or failure in dealing with it. 30/70 are used to determined how bad/good that outcome was with any numbers lower/higher causing more damage/no damage to Jaune. Yeah...his rolls are bullshit.  
**

 **· Roll 1D100 to determine the reaction (1) and outcome (2) of each encounter**

 **· Weeping Angel (56) (20)**

 **· Ghosts (18) (98)**

 **· Endless rooms/building mazes (83) (75)**

 **· Colour reversal (64) (97)**

 **· Fake Grimm (72) (80)**

 **Besides this...hmm...I suppose the ending of the chapter could've been better. It's kinda a rush job I knowing my pace in writing chapters can be unstable, I rather not leave the end of the chapter to a cliffhanger no matter how much 'better' that is. You don't simply end an chapter with an unknown or screw up and _not_ present another chapter in a week (at most!). That's just...being evil to people. I really don't like cliffhangers even if it builds up suspense and all. Might be the reason why my writing tends to be straightforward in its plot development. **

**Oh and one last thing, I'm considering to change the rating to M...though I don't think the series had dived deep enough in the violent section to warrant it? Bah. I'll deal with it when any complaints happen...or before my series gets pulled down because I'm writing about a guy being ripped in two in a K-T series.**

 **I _really_ can see that happening in the future...among people being massacred, people looting...yeah things will _really_ go downhill in the optimism department later in the series (much _much_ later though). I might as well change the ratings now...**

 **Actually I might as well change the whole damn thing and add the 'friendship' genre and Pyrrha as a main character. Though not the summary. I have no damn clue on how to change it into something better.**

 **And one last thing, this chapter hadn't been looked over as much as it should. If anyone wishes to, send a PM of the list of errors and corrections...note that I'm using Australian/British english and _those_ are not mistakes. Frankly it's disturbing how America is so isolated with its different metric system in _everything_ compared to the rest of the world. **


	13. Chapter 13

**Disclaimer: I own nothing of RWBY which belongs to Rooster Teeth and the late Monty Owm.**

* * *

 **Chapter 13**

 **A Nightmare Engaged**

Abandoned tools and other small items were shattered around at the entrance of the mine. It looked as you expected; a large hole into the wall that descended deep into the ground with every step you take. There was a track to one side of the entrance allowing machines to come in and out on it.

Mine carts were a surprise considering the sheer difference in technological advancements the closer you got to cities. Jaune had expected that they would be using something more…advanced he supposed. Yet he had a feeling the truly more impressive mining tools lied deep into the mines being automatic machines, still working despite no one managing them for a week.

Now all he had to do was make sure that morale was up between Pyrrha and him…while knowing that whatever was screwing with them could make anything happen for reasons he had no clue of. Unlikely was the word he wanted to use when it came to encouraging anyone in this situation.

Unless said person was a highly optimistic or an idiot without a clue of what could happen to them, rationality made it quite clear that going anywhere nears this mine in the centre of this haunted town was a good idea. The lack of people to say otherwise was most damning in that sense.

How could do prep-talk when he didn't feel good about this himself?

More so, he _knew_ he had no choice but to do this. Either via _knowing_ that the Guild would send orders back to him to investigate further or by the morals that his red-headed partner had, all paths ended up with them entering the mines to investigate what was going on.

With power came responsibility and as a Hunter with great power, you also had great responsibility to protect the greater good of people even if it meant your life. Being a Hunter, you had a _duty_ to hunt and fight Grimm but that wasn't all. _Anything_ that is beyond the realm of normal people is under a Hunter's jurisdiction to manage.

Such a region of towns swimming in nightmares with one particular town out of contact and without anything left in it. However there was one unfortunate reason why Jaune knew before anything else that he would be walking into this mine.

Jaune didn't want to just be a good Hunter but also a hero. Leaving, abandoning any possible people that are still alive was impossible for him to do. That was one of the main reasons why he continued Pyrrha's training despite his often mental complaints and horror at some of the things he was forced to do.

Still, he wasn't that brave. He couldn't shrug off dangers to his life without issue. But he wasn't a coward but could easily become one if he didn't pay attention to where his thoughts would lead to.

A hero wouldn't back down now. _He had no choice and couldn't back down._ A hero would be courageous in leading his people. _He wasn't as courageous as he liked and the only person who would follow him was Pyrrha._ A hero's story almost always ended in their heroic deaths. _Jaune Arc has no intention of dying here no matter what._

He hated this part.

No matter how much he tried to put on a brave front, he was scared of doing something that might cause him to die. Even fighting against Grimm lost its danger due to his semblance and Pyrrha at his side. He wasn't scared because there was no risk of true death then.

But here? In these mines lies the most possible death he could get and there would be no avoiding it. No plans to combat the threat of death that came unknowingly. He didn't even know if _Pyrrha_ could come out of this alive if not unharmed.

"Pyrrha, I am scared. Scared of going down there more than anything else because I may _die_ " he said as calmly as he could.

Even the fight against the King Taijitu which had a considerable of danger to his life due to being on his last leg couldn't compare to the _feeling_ he was getting right now. And there was no point in denying it.

"Jaune, you'll do fine. We are _partners_ remember? We have each other's' backs no matter what" her hand patted his shoulder gently and he saw the same reassuring smile as always. He knew that she couldn't assure that.

But…she was the person he trusted the most in the world. And while he couldn't completely become unafraid of what they would be getting into, he could at least not freeze in crippling fear when the worse came to them.

He let out a breath while adjusting his dented armour. It was a good thing that he would be getting a new set when they get back to the craftsman Ash in Signal.

"Yeah, you're right" he smiled while looking up to the skies. If anything, he would do anything to ensure that both of them would make it out here alive. Living was a prospect he liked but not if it meant his partner dying on him.

 _'Still, it's best to prepare as much as possible when I have the chance'_ he thought while thinking of his semblance. There was a lot to learn and how semblances acted was one of them. But right now, all his thoughts would need to go towards making sure to get the best possible result in the next couple of hours.

"Aura Soldier. Deploy. Summon. Activate."

Usually he would use shorter activation keys to using his most powerful skill, but it rare enough that he had time to not rush the activation (not that it mattered). With steady words and a steady pace of Aura coming out of his body, he said the next words at the same time the message appeared in his sights.

 **[Aura Soldier has activated]**

 **[Please select pre-set to be deployed]**

 **[Please select number of Aura Soldiers to be deployed]**

"Set Knight-1. Set Knight-2" he said before two lumps of white aura appeared from his body and turned into _knights_ before them.

Each taking 15% of his total Aura which was considerable to most Hunters, he now had two creatures that were roughly equal to an E rank Hunter each.

"Right, do we have anything else we need to check on before we go in there? Do we have torches?" he asked.

Shaking her head she answered, "None at all. The mines do have electric lights but I doubt any of them would be activated right now to save on energy. More than that, torches would cause us to suffocate deep in the mine."

"How deep is this place?"

"Possible around…a few hundred metres I believe? It would take us a few hours to go to the deepest parts of the mines and out before considering to thoroughly search through every path and corner" she replied with the same face as his, the face of someone who _really_ didn't want to do that.

If they actually did so then let alone hours, it would take days to fully search through the mine completely. And worse came to bout, _everything_ bad that could happen, would happen to them just to spite him and his thoughts on coming into this place.

With that in mine, he took out a piece of paper and a pen and written a short message before pinning it next to the mine entrance. Hopefully it would be there if they never returned and someone came searching for them.

"I'm making sure we have insurance, well at least a message just in case" he answered the unsaid question though she wasn't pleased.

"Jaune you have your semblance to rely on if anything goes wrong-" she bit her lips.

"Pyrrha" he said cutting into what she was going to say, "I prefer that I won't have to rely on my semblance for this. I'm not that bad to have to rely on it for _everything_. I wouldn't even be a third-rate Huntsman if I did."

She paused for a moment before smirking, "Of course. But I'm still going to make sure you are protected enough so that you wouldn't need to rely on it until you are strong enough."

"Of course" he sighed in return.

It was an uncomfortable truth that Pyrrha was overprotective when it came to him. Social isolation from a good deal of her life combined with the fame that caused it did no favours in the number of people she would actually want to die for. He was on that list…and wasn't that strong at keeping his life it seemed.

This naturally showed in her body language being like a knight protecting their helpless princess. It was something that he really wanted to stop just from the image it gave him and anyone looking closely enough at their relationship. He was a guy, he didn't want to be protected like _that_!

But Jaune expected it to stop only after he was actually strong enough to not die in a way that she could've prevented that he couldn't.

 _'Which is probably when I reach C rank…whenever that will happen'_ he mused. C rank was the 'average' rank of Hunters though it didn't reflect the actual medium of strength of all Hunters on general. C rank meant you were good enough to go off on your own and _not_ die without anyone looking after you.

Some say it's the rank where 'true' Hunters at least had. And part of Jaune agreed with that. D rank wasn't exceptional at any means. You were strong enough to deal with small-fry Grimm but none of the stronger, much dangerous stuff like Death Stalkers without a good deal of back-up and even then without a lot of causalities.

At this rate, Jaune predicted it would take him another half a year to get to that rank. After all, it only took him four months to get from F rank to D rank even if the circumstances left a bitter taste to how he was promoted so quickly.

His thoughts moved back onto the matter of the mines to avoid the emotions associated with _that_ event.

 _'As the 'leader' between us, I rather have her survive if anything goes wrong. Pyrrha certainly has a higher chance of making it back to make a report to the Guild between us but I know for certain who she could choose to save if it ever came to it'_ his thoughts turned morbid before he shook his head again.

Unless it was something above C rank in threat rating, he was certain she would be able to handle everything. But there was still a chance, no matter how slim that something stronger would come to attack them.

"Jaune?" she looked at him, evidently seeing the worry he was expressing.

He decided to answer her at least, "I _really_ don't like the situation we're being put into Pyrrha. It's not only a matter of being scared but how _bad_ everything can get without warning and without any chances of preventing it."

"I would agree but you didn't have any problems searching through the town" she pointed out.

"This and that is different. The town is a _wide_ area which we can easily run around and through to avoid being attacked. The mines will literally force us to confront every single problem and enemy head on" he was frustrated by that, "And if _anything_ goes wrong, it would be us being trapped or crushed under falling rocks from a cave-in."

He continued speaking, "Even the fight against the King Taijitu wasn't as threatening to our lives then going into that mine. If it was a _normal_ mine then I would be all for it. But. I cannot not doubt that Grimm are down there."

Jaune still had a small hope that they could just _leave_ and report this in rather than to dive into the danger. But then again, responsibility and obligations are a higher priority to him. Helping people was fine to him but they needed to draw a line _somewhere_. To what extent should they risk themselves for other people?

Traditional Hunters would give their _lives_ for complete strangers.

Those people were heroes.

Jaune…was not, yet. That was why he was wavering. In many ways, Pyrrha was more of a hero than he could ever be. She never doubted when it came to helping people and while he was the same when he began his Hunter career, two years was enough to change people for the worse in some ways.

Pyrrha was his rock when it came to heroic. If Pyrrha felt like something was the right thing to do then he would do it as well without hesitation. Her morals was that good that he could depend on them that much. In fact, she was the type to volunteer for missions that were dangerous to her health if it meant others didn't need to take the burden instead while she watched.

Either way, the path of being a hero meant not backing down right now.

Without another word, they entered the mine.

-o-

It wasn't very surprising that Pyrrha would try to motivate him.

"Doing dangerous things are part of our jobs as Hunters. It is our skills and resolve that allows us to fight when others can't. If not us right now and here then who else would take this burden? The fact that you did not tell me that we should leave says more about your character than you think" she talked with the intent of encouragement.

It worked, it a certain level. It still didn't stop the feeling of fear from completely disappearing, it was at least enough that he could distract himself with the conversation a little bit.

"Other Hunters I think? We're not the only one to have this responsibility you've been talking about for a full ten minutes! If I didn't know better I would've suspected you of a recruiter." he retorted though his partner blushed.

Face red she replied quickly, "T-That's one of my jobs before was on a commercial so I had training to-"

"Brainwash people with bad products?" Jaune smirked.

"Oi!"

Before he knew it, the atmosphere between them became quite light-hearted. He would almost feel his stress leaving his body as he continued walking down the dark path with the Huntress next to him. It had already been a few minutes and yet there were no signs of any stops. This mine was truly deeper than he expected it to be.

Of course, they weren't slacking off in making sure that nothing gets past their sense and harm them. Already they had avoided some especially minor traps that were really basic and most likely wouldn't have hindered anyone who came through more than once. They weren't sure if the traps were meant to be lethal but there seemed to be a trend that each progressing trap was harder to spot then the last.

Jaune was surprised that he was so calm in face of this danger. He was very much surprised that even when thoughts of his possible death, his body wasn't shaking on the chance that he would _die_.

Perhaps he had matured a bit since back then. Or the fact that he had _two_ Aura Soldiers and therefore two more chances to screw up without consequences helped calm his nerves. People including himself were generally more calm to events if it bode no risks to them. However the moment he loses these two Aura Soldiers, the danger will be back.

"You know, I half expect something to just fly out of the darkness and charge at us at this point" he commented while tip-toeing near the wall to avoid another blatant trap that would be tripped via a basic wire trap.

"Is it weird for me to think of bats when in a dark cave-like area like this?" he asked as well.

"Not at all, there are many mines that have been founded within caves. Bats are very common in such places and eventually made it a 'known-fact' that mines carried bats even when most didn't" she replied.

A few more minutes passed without issue however it was quickly getting darker and it was starting to strain their eyesight to see as well as he did before. However Aura tends to have a minor lighting effect when used and with two Aura Soldiers, they seemed to have postponed this issue by a few minutes by having two of them leading at the front.

Neither Hunter commented on this because there was really little need to. More than that, the effect of the darkened path made the mood much more serious. Jaune quickly stopped commenting on random things an even Pyrrha stopped with her words of encouragement. However, it was even more apparent that Jaune was starting to struggle to tell what was in front of him than his partner.

"Jaune, are you struggling with seeing in the dark?" she asked while stopping him. He knew that she was worried that he would fall into a trap or something similar at this rate.

He took a moment to think about his response and admitted, "A bit. I don't think I can suddenly gain a skill for this even if I tried."

The less said about obtaining a passive skill so quickly the better. Active skills were a bit better though restricted by the amount of Aura you had and the complexity of the skill you're trying to learn.

"Hmm…there are _skills_ to help you see well enough in the dark but I really doubt you can just learn one all of a sudden" was the reply he got as expected.

"But" Pyrrha raised her finger up, "There are other _methods_ to imitate certain skills by expending a lot of Aura in the process. Most Hunters don't use them because of the amount of Aura it burns through."

"How much more?" he asked.

Pondering for a moment she answered, "Well _with_ a skill most Hunters your rank can last for around an hour while actively using it. But considering your reserves, those with my rank can last a few more hours. Using this method cuts down your time limit heavily so that if you're lucky, you can last for an hour."

"That's not a lot of time."

And considering that he's down to around half his Aura left, he would have only 30 minutes' worth of light if he used his entire Aura. It simply wasn't worth it in the end.

"I think I take my chances in the dark" he replied though feeling uncomfortable about all of this as well. He was pretty sure that Pyrrha had a passive skill to allow her to see better in the dark, better than him at least.

"Are you sure? You're reduced to being useless if you do decide to not use Aura to better your eyesight."

"Yeah…at this point, having more Aura is more important than to see better in the dark right. Plus my semblance can help if…I take a hit too badly" he said with the feeling that Pyrrha was looking at him with disapproval.

Seeing that even imagining such a thing was uncomfortable at best, Jaune changed the topic as best he could.

"You would think that there would be lights on by now. Or at least a switch for them" he spoke up seeing the brief and shadowed off light-bulb above their heads. Did they miss the lights switch near the entrance perhaps? He didn't want to go through this mine without line of sight.

Fortunately for Jaune, not a minute later and his partner spotted a power box which she immediately flicked up causing a low groan as _many_ lights lit up to a dim level. Seeing the low level of light coming out, he wondered if the lights were designed to be dim or it was just time and wear causing them to be dimmer than he expected.

"Well now you don't have a vision problem" she said to him, hands on her hips.

He grinned at her without a word before walking beside her. Now that there was actually some lights, Jaune could tell some of the details of the mines that he couldn't before. For one, there were no more tracks for the mine carts to one end of the tunnel deeper into the ground.

Looking back, there seemed to be another tunnel that shot into the side of the main tunnel before disappearing. Shrugging at that minor detail, Jaune also noticed that the structural support on the edge of the mine was thicker compared to the ones at the start of the path. He could even see a bit of metal reinforcing some parts as well.

Focusing even more onto the ground, he noticed that there was a clear lack if dust and dirt by the fact that the floor and everything around them was clearly almost completely made of stone right now. And how he couldn't even spot cobwebs was telling on how deep they were underground.

He wasn't sure but the lack of bugs was a good thing. Less things to distract him from.

"Hey, it looks like we near some sort of room" said Pyrrha pointing to an open space further down. While Jaune would _love_ to just run into that room, he also noticed there was a _clear_ wire trap at the entrance space.

"And a trap" he deadpanned at how clear the trap was. He suspected that even if it was completely dark, that he had a high chance of spotting it before he could trip over it and die. Seeing no reaction from his partner, it was easy to see that she saw this as well.

Walking up to the entrance of the room and at the same time, the trap, Jaune crouched down peering at it to see if there was anything else to it. He saw nothing out of the ordinary except that it was _clearly_ meant to trip some sort of trap.

"Should we trip it?" he wondered.

There was a chance that there was another trap within the trap that this trap was meant to distract them with but he dismissed that possibility. The quality of the previous traps and what this one might be left him no choice but to believe that there was nothing hidden with this trap.

Of course, thinking about it so much gave him a minor headache of whether or not to take the chance to trip it to see if anything else is hidden with it. After asking Pyrrha that he could and getting a confirmation that he could if he wanted to, he walked back a couple of paces, as far away as possible while within vision of the entrance before sending Knight-2 ahead.

"Stop. Why are you sending one of your _Aura Soldiers_ to trip the trap?" Pyrrha hissed with a harsh look.

Blushing lightly at forgetting that he was saving up Aura for later, he asked her, "Do you have anything that could trip the trap from here then?"

The Huntress rolled her eyes before pulling out a small knife before flicking it at the trap, cutting through the tight rope with ease before sticking upwards in the ground.

….

….

Nothing seemed to have happened and he was about to say that the trap was a dud or feint but-

 _Cl-ick~_

And then…

 **BANG!**

The impact shook the space around them to the point that Jaune was worried that they would be trapped in a cave-in. However when the shaking stopped, he couldn't help but widen his eyes at the _sight_ of what the trap was.

 _'Holy shit'_ he froze in place at the sheer overkill he just saw.

It was a spike. A giant metal spike that was larger than his entire body, sharpened at the point to the extent that it was firmly stuck in the opposite wall. And there could be only one response to such a thing.

"What he _holy fuck_ was that?" he exclaimed.

"I guess the issue with thieves was that much of a big deal to them" Pyrrha commented seriously. He could see a slight outline of the red-head using Aura and her semblance on the metal spike which wriggled in its place a bit before a resigned and disappointed look appeared on her face.

"Don't tell me you wanted to _take_ the giant metal spike of death?!" his eyes widened at the lack of denial.

Instead what he got was a girl his age _pouting_ about not being able to take a large lump of metal with her. Who knew that Pyrrha wanted a new and dangerous weapon that much? He wasn't even sure she would be able to carry it even if she somehow managed to get the metal spike out of the wall.

"It's not that I want to use it as a _weapon_ but rather this metal spike is _completely_ made of multiple types of metals. Some of them are quite rare and would pitch a good price if we decide to sell it."

That got his interest.

"Is there no way to actually get it out?" he asked with a bit more intent. Money was _always_ a good thing now that he needed to spend a lot on his equipment. If possible he would want to go back to Signal and afford to pay for a full set of equipment.

At his current rate, he would need to spend a lot of time to get the remains of the armour that was designed for him. He still needed to pay for 200K lien worth to get the full set and that's only _if_ they manage to get out of here and deliver the materials to Ash.

However it was not meant to be.

"I _could_ pull the metal out but there is a slight problem that I would also collapse the mines over us if I do. I might have been able to extract it if the trap hadn't been tripped" she explained while crushing his hopes at the same time.

A sorrowing sigh came out of his mouth before he knew it.

"Damn, shouldn't have triggered the trap" he moaned before thinking through the situation again before asking, "Can't you say…extract a _part_ of the metal spike, possibly with the part of the most worth?"

Pyrrha fell into thought before saying, "Perhaps…I _maybe_ may be able to extract out up to a hundred thousand lien worth? It will be a lot less and it will take me about 20 minutes to do so."

"Do it" he ordered immediately. Even if it wasn't 100K lien, it was still enough to help pay the costs without him having to parasite off his partner on costs. Jaune moved over, getting out of her way as her Aura flared up, her semblance guided by her hands as she started extracting the precious metal.

He was expecting to wait in the long haul.

He didn't expect to only wait a _single_ minute before she shouted as she done.

"I thought you said it would take around 20 minutes" he looked at her disbelievingly while noticing the odd lumps of metals in her hand, all twisted up. Even from afar, Jaune could tell that she was sweating a fair bit from her action.

"I was surprised as well. I didn't think it would take that little time to get to the core of the metal spike" she admitted before placing the twisted metal ore into her bag.

"Huh" he didn't have anything to say about that and thought only that it was fortunate it took such little time. It also, in hindsight saved a lot of Aura from being used by Pyrrha which might have otherwise caused a problem later on.

After looking into the room from where the trap was 'guarding', the duo found nothing but rusted tools and concluded that the entire concept of the room was a trap for those not familiar with the mine and yet greedy enough to try and search through every room. Vigilance was raised when he realised that.

This did nothing to Jaune trying to distract himself from getting more stress from how serious everything seemed to be. For better or worse, this came about by talking as much as possible.

"To think that _miners_ would set up something so dangerous" he complained, only after minutes of said event. There wasn't any heat in his words at all and Pyrrha knew him too well to believe anything like that.

"It wasn't that bad. There was no danger at all" his partner replied, deciding to humour him this time.

"No danger? If we were even standing anywhere in the location of where the metal spike impacted…well you _did_ say that a Hunter's profession is filled with dangerous things happening to them" he acted shocked.

Pyrrha glared at him with the strength of a thousand suns but didn't outright rebuke him just yet, "You know what I meant Jaune. Neither of us knew of how dangerous that trap was and we can only thank our luck that we weren't hurt."

He looked back in his memory at the broken wall and wondered how many more traps there were in the mines. Perhaps the trap was a buff to deter more people from going on? Perhaps now and there were much worse. Or perhaps it was a double buff?

They couldn't afford to let their guards down either way. There were too many _unknowns_ when it came to what was happening and their time spent in the town only revealed _nothing_ to them about what was actually happening.

Before long, Jaune asked another question, "What do you think happened to the other Hunters that were in this region? All of them couldn't have just decided to leave at once for no reason."

"Most of the Hunters that were originally in this region had gone to Mountain Glenn remember? The mission was high priority and paid well enough that a significant number of Hunters left when given the chance" she vocalised her reminder.

A particular thought came to him when hearing that, "Shouldn't there be _some_ Hunters around then? If all of the Hunters didn't just decide to pack their bags and _all_ leave, there should be still some that stayed for whatever reason."

Personal obligation, promises, increasing relationships with towns by being loyal…

There were a lot of reasons to stay in place when there was a better opportunity tangling before everyone's eyes. The first people who would jump to a good opportunity are either the desperate or greedy.

"It doesn't make sense. With fewer Hunters around, the remaining Hunters left behind would have more Grimm to kill, more money to make…and yet there was _no_ Hunters for a whole week? It doesn't make sense. _Someone_ must have thought that they could profit from this situation" he said.

"Or there were other places with better profits. There are many places a Hunter can profit off by hunting down Grimm. If there is a lack of Grimm, then Hunters will naturally move to another place" she pointed out.

It indeed made sense. What if…the Hunters that left for that mission at Mountain Glenn also hunted down most of the Grimm in the region. _That_ would cause the remaining Hunters to just give up and leave for better places.

But why did he think this wasn't the case.

"But to the point that there _were no other Hunters besides us in several towns_? There should be at least a few F rank Hunters around to do minor chores even without Grimm around" he repeated disbelievingly at her.

The Huntress looked away slightly, "Of course, how could I forget about that?"

After a pause she then proceeded to say her point to him, "But you do have a point. Hunters may be lured away by greater profits but there should have a few around. Hunter culture has changed quite a bit that we're referred as mercenaries when not dealing with Grimm. There isn't much information about Hunters disappearing in this area as far as I know or any rumours about this town."

"That may be due to everything being a recent development."

"True. Perhaps the other Hunters came to this mining town and disappear here" she suggested.

The image of other Hunters coming to this town…this mine and…disappearing made him feel a chill. It was not a good thought. Not a good thought at all to be having right now.

"Yeah no" he openly shuddered to the suggestion, "I rather think of it as incompetence from the Guild's management rather than think that this town and especially this mine is a dead-trap to any Hunters that enters."

The conversation died quickly with that and they continued down deeper into the mines without much a word.

-o-

"Oh, the path seems to have stopped" said Pyrrha all of a sudden. From his watch, they had been walking down deeper into the mines for a full half hour now and had looked briefly into several rooms off shooting from the main path.

None of said rooms had anything of worth or investigating which was frustrating enough. Now the main path deeper into the mine stopped? Did they already reach the end of the mine itself or was there more?

"A dead-end?" he frowned.

They quickly approached the 'dead-end' and found instead an entrance to a room. A large room that Jaune couldn't see completely due to the difference in heights thanks to how steep the path down seemed to be as it turned into stairs.

Without another words, Pyrrha walked ahead without any fear or hesitation and scouted first.

"Anything bad down there?" he asked.

The Huntress shook her head before looking up at Jaune, "No, an intersection it seems. Or at least it looks like one. There are a couple of other ways down though they are most likely different branches of the mine."

Hearing that, Jaune walked down as well with his two Aura Soldiers still guarding him. He had half an hour on both of them and would need to replace them sooner or later. Hopefully there would be little need to have more than one on the field.

 _'There's a lot of dust around. Are all mines like this or do they clean?'_ Jaune thought as he observed how dust seemed to move quite easily when he stepped on the ground. Actually, wasn't the ground basically made of hard rock? How come there is so much dust around?

Jaune admitted to himself that he seemed to have overestimated the dangers of the mine. There were no enemies and no illusions to twist their mines at all.

"And only one of them leads to the deepest parts of the mine?" he questioned looking at each new path that they could take. There was little else in the intersection room but it would be good to search nonetheless if they missed anything.

"Possibly several" she said, "But we have no way of knowing without looking through each and every one of them."

"And there may be more of these intersections as well" he muttered.

Scanning around quickly, Jaune casually walked up to a barrel to open it to find some rocks. Not at all disillusioned he opened the next, the one after and the one after that in a row. Pyrrha looked in confusion to her leader and asked, "What are you doing?"

"Searching" he bluntly answered.

Neither of them spoke for a moment before he quickly added, "I'm searching for anything helpful around here. Even if a very low chance, there may be something that will allow us to know which path that we need to choose."

"And this is to…actually search out each path?"

"Possibly" he shrugged, "Better to search now than to possibly face Grimm on each path before we get the right one. So will you help me or not?"

"Why not" she agreed easily enough to headed to the opposite side of the intersection room before pausing and saying, "Hey, why don't I scout out a few of these paths first?"

"Isn't that counterproductive to split up?" he asked.

"Maybe but by the time you've searched through this…room, I could see if there is anything interesting in a couple of the paths. Maybe I'll get lucky and find something that you're searching for early on in one of the paths" she argued.

Still…while Jaune _really_ didn't want to separate from Pyrrha in any way, she did have a point. Splitting up at this point even temporary would beneficial to finding anything. It would take him up to ten minutes. That amount of time was enough for Pyrrha to go through perhaps half a dozen of these paths before returning with information.

"Sure" he waved off before sighing, "Just…make sure you're safe no matter what."

"Of course" she smiled back at him before disappearing in one of the paths.

Looking at the few dozen barrels and other items to search through in the wide room, Jaune muttered to himself, "Well I have time to lose, might as well start my search now. Knight-1, start carrying barrels and other items to me. Knight-2…standby."

Thankfully the AI of his Aura Soldiers was enough for this level of a task. However he doubted that it was advanced enough to know what was useful or not to him and how to handle delicate items.

Yeah it was a good thing he didn't ask Knight-2 to aid him in sorting through items. But it didn't mean he couldn't let it do some of the hard work for him.

"Knight-2 start opening barrels" he ordered while picking out rocks and ores of various types before moving on. Sure he could've taken them but he didn't have the room nor did he want to be a thief.

It was a bit sad that many wanted to become 'Heroes' to be in prime locations to 'borrow' valuable items.

"Well then" he said looking towards his Aura Soldier, "Let's see if we can find anything useful while we're here."

A few minutes into the search and Jaune quickly realised something. There really wasn't much to search through or for. Not even a book or journal to aid them of telling of strange things happening. In fact, the only thing in the area seemed to be old tools and rocks mixed with a minor amount of ores.

Not very surprising when you think about it, this place wasn't important at all compared to the rest of the mine.

 _'Okay…should've decided to search deeper in or possibly find an office if one exist.'_ he mentally amended. And after _another_ ten minutes of _nothing_ along with Pyrrha coming back from three different possible paths, he finally gave up.

"Arrggh…!" Jaune let out a scream that soon turned soundless at the lack of results.

Pyrrha had an amused look on her face after deciding to watch him 'work',

"Well, this was a bit of a waste of our time" she idly smirked. It was a rare case that made him want to smack her face for such a comment but he wasn't feeling tolerant and forgiving right now.

"Oh just shut it" he groaned.

Well he wasn't expecting anything that _convenient_ to guide and clue them into what 'big-bad' they should try to avoid at this point but it still would've been nice if it existed. Such a time would've been a major benefit to them but it seemed that his luck wasn't there or it was his thinking that was wrong.

"Please just tell me what you found out" he asked solemnly.

"All of the paths weren't dead-ends, at least to the point after a few minutes of jogging into them I guess" she said, "I suggest going for the one which is the largest. Air flow is especially important for a mine and a larger tunnel path would be important to ensure the miners wouldn't suffocate the deeper they go."

Jaune nodded while agreeing to that.

"Did you find anything else?"

"No extra rooms if that's what you're asking for" she said. Well that wasn't exactly what he wanted to know about but it was good to know there were no extra rooms he could hope for.

"So go through the largest path?"

"Go through the largest path" she agreed.

The blonde Huntsman noted that the next set of stairs was remarkably calmer than the first, no signs of traps at least. He supposed that it was possible that the miners thought that no one else could get to this point.

Not only that, Jaune noticed a dip in the amount of air that he could breathe in remarkably quickly. Fighting for more than a moment would be a lot more difficult in this situation as well not to mention the dangers of fighting enemies in an enclosed space and cave-ins. Considering that this mine had automated _machines_ working in it, it wouldn't be far-fetched that they could fight as well.

Not that he saw many of those machines. He had _presumed_ that the mine should have some running about even now because the technology of Remnant was good enough that places like this near cities or important places would be more advanced in technology.

That didn't seem to be the case.

There were barely any machines in this mine and those he encountered were the types that required humans to use them to function. However he did believe that there would be more of these machines deeper into the mine. There was respectively no point of having machines so 'high' up compared to making them work to the deepest parts of the mine.

As they walked in the tunnel pathway Pyrrha suggested they to go through, there wasn't much to note since it was the typical relatively dark tunnel with too little space to really run through properly without tripping over something.

But, the good point was that without the random items shattered around, this tunnel was actually quite large.

 **Cr-ACK!**

It was too bad the ground decided to break right now at this moment.

"SON OF A-"

-o-

When he regained consciousness, it was under rubble. And the first thing that came to his mind was _what happened_. One moment everything was fine and the next moment the ground was falling under him.

"Ow…that" he patted himself for anything broken before pausing in surprise of the lack of injuries all over his body, "Didn't actually hurt me at all. Huh, Aura is _really_ overpowered now that I think about it."

 _'Or it may be just my Aura Soldiers dying in my steed again. Damn that's embarrassing'_ he thought, feeling no connection to the skill's creation. He looked up the amount of Aura he had left and it was around half.

 _Both_ Aura Soldiers he had died in his place…or the time limit was passed. He wasn't sure of how long he was unconscious.

Scanning the dimly lit area which was darker than wherever they dropped down from; he found Pyrrha at the front with her weapon and shield drawn and raised. Without much of a hesitation he called out to her, "Hey Pyrrha-"

"Jaune you're awake" she said quickly without looking at him, "Get up, there are Grimm here."

And all of a sudden, Jaune felt the need to get up, draw and raise his own weapon and shield in anticipation of enemies trying to kill them as it tends to be when it came with combat against Grimm.

"What kind of Grimm are we facing?" he asked suddenly while moving forward next to the red-head.

Said red-head grunted, "Probably Bergbui. Normally rated a E rank threat due to being around the same size as a Boarbatusk but in a place like this mine…they are to be bumped up to be a C rank threat or even higher depending on whether they can cause a cave-in on our heads."

"That's pretty frightening. A 'weak' Grimm being ranked up higher as a threat just because of its ability in certain places?" he looked at her in surprise. Not to mention the leap in threat assessment rank.

E rank could be dealt by an ordinary civilian without Aura if they are strong, skilled or lucky enough. C rank is pretty much a sign that _only_ Hunters can deal with them and can easily slaughter a significant amount of civilians if encountered.

Yeah, if this Bergbui can be considered a C rank threat in mines _without_ causing cave-ins…Jaune wouldn't be surprised if there are no one else alive in here with them unless they are _extremely_ lucky or Aura using Hunters as well.

"Are these kinds of Grimm common?" he further asked. If so, then Remnant would be a lot more dangerous than he thought, and that was saying something when there were monstrous Grimm out there that could take on a Kingdom alone.

"It's not that uncommon in fact, just usually hard to encounter not that many _want_ to encounter them. While most of the common types of Grimm such as Beowolves and Ursas don't have anything else besides sheer combat ability, there are some Grimm that have adapted to certain environments" she explained, "Bergbui are Grimm that barrow _through rock_ with ease-"

The next instant, a large black rocky arm burst out of the wall about to crush Jaune before Pyrrha moved in, pushed him aside and started slashing rapidly thrice in a single moment before slamming her shield arm into the wall with _impact_.

"-Which also allows them to attack us from all direction if they wish" she finish while shaking the hand she used to punch. The Blonde was a _bit_ shocked by how quickly the battle came and went but that was more to the fact that they now could encounter being attack _at any time and moment they let their guards down_.

The Huntsman, as Pyrrha saw, didn't look exactly pleased by this.

"Please keep your guard up as much as possible" she suggested with a _tint_ of fear in her eyes, "I might not be fast enough next time to protect you."

Hearing that, the blonde did the most logical thing and immediately summoned an Aura Soldier.

 **[Aura Soldier has activated]**

 **[Please select pre-set to be deployed]**

 **[Please select number of Aura Soldiers to be deployed]**

"Set Knight-1."

With his Aura levels decreasing to a mere third of what it was when they entered the town (and _boy_ was that distressing), Jaune stood in place, no sure whether to expect any attacks or not. Especially compared to Pyrrha, his Perception and Reaction Speed wasn't that high with the former being considered E rank and the latter being barely D rank.

"I'm counting on you to cover me for anything I don't spot" he said to her.

She nodded her head and both of them started heading down the tunnel they were in. It wasn't that high, only a head higher than his height and its width allowed for three people to stand side by side.

He also noted that there wasn't much he could do with his sole movement and passive skill besides some minor short range, _close_ dodges if it came to that.

Due to this, Knight-1 was positioned at the front, he was in the middle and Pyrrha was covering them all at the back. She reasoned her stats were good enough to deal with the most important role of the formation and he agreed. He was only in the middle due to Knight-1 being better to tank a sudden hit than him.

A few minutes later, crossing through three different paths and turning back from 2 dead-ends, they encountered the next set of Bergbui that appeared directly in front and behind them.

"Pyrrha!" he called out but she already turning and initiating combat with the Grimm behind them. Paying much more attention to the one he had to deal with, he immediately ordered Knight-1 to charge up first while following close behind.

The Aura Soldier smashed it's sword at the Bergbui which had its rocky arms cracked slightly before being rebounded back a few paces preventing him to attack as well before it recovered itself. Jaune clicked his tongue noting that a range weapon would've been _very_ nice right now.

 _'I should've brought even a simple hand-gun back at Signal if I knew this would happen'_ he cursed as the Bergbui easily slipped it's arms into the ground before pulling up a boulder the size of him and threw it.

Activating his passive skill, Jaune rushed forward while Knight-1 moved to block the boulder (and take from damage from it). Aura channelled into his sword easily as he activated the Aura Charge skill, his blow did better than Knight-1 in that he managed to cut deeply into the arms of the Grimm.

Following this, he poured a bit of Aura into his legs as he used a move he seen frequently used by his partner and kicked the Grimm back before spinning and attacking a second time. This time Jaune cut through the torso of the Bergbui, killing it.

"Not bad" a voice commented, directly behind you. _Very_ close behind you.

Jaune yelped.

"You don't have the perception, reaction speed or sheer _speed_ to use that spinning turn attack without being counter-attacked easily by other Hunters but for Grimm, it should be fine if you use it minimally" _Pyrrha_ continued to comment on his performance.

Sighing in relief that it was just his partner, the Huntsman complained, " _Did_ you have to sneak up behind me?"

She smirked before her face settled down in a more neutral look, "You're just bad at spotting things. Something we _have_ to improve on along with your sword skills. It was improved by a lot but it's still quite bad even compared to your Aura Soldiers."

"That only proves how much my skill's creations have improved" he snorted. He was quite proud of how much the AI of his Aura Soldier had improved in combat. While outside of combat it was…iffy, inside combat it was pretty good being skilful in working with the both of them.

Inspecting the Aura Soldier that was placing the half-broken boulder thrown at it to the side, Jaune saw that there was not that much damage to it and thus no need to summon a new one.

"Let's go" he said.

The next couple of minutes were more silent than the last. There was no attack but they still were cautious at anything that might pop up. Of course, nothing appeared by the time they found a storage area with nothing but a few sets of expired dry foods. And despite searching through it on his insistence, they found nothing but scrapped food which they took which was still edible just in case.

The next ten minutes afterwards was much more productive in the sense that they were attacked by more Bergbui. Three this time with two appearing at the front and one at the back-

"Jaune! To the right!" Pyrrha called out.

Head snapping to the right, his eyes widened at the sight of two rocky arms appearing and grabbing him-

-Which he quickly responded to by taking a good _step_ back causing the arms of _death_ to catch air. The next moment Pyrrha appeared to his side at speeds that were much faster than when she sparred with him with her weapon in spear mode slamming into the wall.

Without a thought more Jaune quickly commanded, "Take the one at the back. I'll defeat/stall the ones at the front. You help when you're done."

An eyebrow raised was the response he got but he barely saw the trail of red-hair moving quickly to behind them.

Meanwhile Knight-1 was dealing with _two_ Bergbui at once and the Huntsman also moved to help it out. Holding his shield at front, rammed into the Grimm to the right while Knight-1 pushed the other Bergbui back before changing stances to slash at the one he rammed into.

The next moment, the rock Grimm retreated into the ground before the attack connected.

 _'Crap, this one seems to be smarter than the other one…or at least used its ability'_ his thought moved quickly as he adapted and ordered Knight-1 to focus back on the other one while he channelled his Aura through his sword and legs to catch up to the Grimm before it completed its disappearing act.

"Aura Burst!" he shouted just at the moment the Bergbui's head moved into the ground. Jaune's sword flashed and burst out an explosion of Aura but didn't manage to reach the Grimm that just disappeared.

Not letting his guard down, his pivoted using his shield as a point…just as a pair of large arms each the size of his body grabbed onto his legs.

"Crap-baskets..."

The next moment he was slammed into the wall…the ground…the wall…the wall and back to the ground before he was shot at-wait that was at the Grimm holding and using him as a make-shift bat.

Hopefully Knight-1 is in better condition than him.

The next minute seemed to be a blur to Jaune as his mind steadied itself though the rest of his body wasn't that injured. From what he could tell, Pyrrha saved him again before dealing with the other one before Knight-1 was destroyed as well.

"That could've went better" he commented seeing the Huntress worry over him after propping him to the wall to rest.

"Yes, it could've" she agreed, "I didn't think you would be caught so easily and toyed around like that."

Jaune groaned.

"Should've expected _that_ to happen after the explanation that they move through rock" he mumbled, a bit ashamed that he didn't avoid that. In hindsight the _first_ kind of attack plan he would make up if he had the ability to slip through the ground would be to attack from _below_.

Then again, he had never made plans to be attacked from below before.

"At my Aura managed to reduce the damage to just minor wounds" he conceded before grabbing the hand Pyrrha held out. She pulled him up with ease before patting his shoulder with some reassurance. Not that it did much to his pride.

"It's a good thing that your Aura is abnormally suited for defence" she checked on some of his wounds, "I don't think you would've been able to move if it hadn't been though..."

She poked his right shoulder causing him to wince.

" _That_ 's not a minor wound. Well it's fine as long as you stop getting hit there."

"Lucky me" he grumbled.

While nice to know, it only meant he was only better suited to taking hits. Still that would possibly explain why his semblance was so deep in the side of making sure that he would live. Not that he was actually that skilled in using his semblance…or Aura now that he thought about it. His partner was several times more efficient than him in controlling it.

He sighed; it was another thing he needed to train.

"Let's keep going" he commanded rubbing his neck where it was still sore.

"That you sure you want to go now?"

Seeing the worried look he was getting he confirmed his intentions, "Yeah, we might as keep on going. If we don't then we might still get attacked. At least by moving, we or well, _I_ have a better chance of responding than resting and leaving it all up to you."

Her mouth was pursed before she agreed after a deliberate moment to consider, "Okay then. Please do _watch_ your health."

"Not like I won't" he rolled his eyes. The stress was really starting to get to him if he was responding to Pyrrha like this.

With that, the pair of Hunters nearly arrived at what seemed to be the end of the series of tunnels they were in. However there were certain effects that laid into the minds of the two. To Pyrrha, she had confirmation that her fears that her partner was at risk. To Jaune, well he was thrown around and used like a bat. Even if he didn't say anything, the trauma would sooner or later end up in a nightmare.

And also due to the previous attack on them that resulted in Jaune receiving some damage, the level of cautiousness increased beyond normal and went into the realm of paranoia. Pyrrha _refused_ to let her guard down while Jaune's eyes would often dart to the side, under and over him at random.

However, _nothing_ attacked them which only made it worse for the pair.

The second attack from the Bergbui happened after a considerable amount of time that they had loosened their guard thinking that they would be safe. The second attack from the Grimm proved them wrong, and they were reacting the other way now.

But minutes later, it seemed that their efforts was fruitless as they weren't attacked at all by the time they reached what seemed to be an intersection or at least a new type of location. Going through a dark tunnel where the enemies included one that could go attack anywhere wasn't fun.

"Is that an exit?" Jaune asked seeing the lit torch. There was a pitch of hope that even he could hear.

Confirming that he wasn't imagining it, the Huntsman let out a laugh of relief that they didn't need to fear combat in such close confinement against enemies that can move through rocks and stone so easily. More than that, they had finally entered a wide space area where-

"Holy crap that's a lot of Grimm."

Across from left to right in his sight was Grimm. All of them being Bergbui for reasons that he could only conclude that they had somehow stumbled into their _nest_. No much was known about Grimm nests except that many Grimm gathered around them including _smaller_ Grimm hence the name 'nest'.

However at the same time, it is _dangerous_ to go near a Grimm nest without preparation. Grimm in or near a nest were much more aggressive and swarmed on the level of a Grimm Horde. And that wasn't the worse part of their situation.

The Bergbui Grimm was one that attacked through rock and stone as their bodies imitated those substances mockingly. Retreating back into the tunnel was frankly such a bad idea that it would be better to just charge in head-on into the nest without a plan.

A second passed and he could _feel_ Pyrrha freeze in place as well. Jaune estimated there were at least three dozen Grimm, a sizable force in this room with them. That amount of Grimm attacking both of them at once…might kill them.

"Pyrrha…" he said carefully as the Bergbui started to notice them. They didn't have much time for a plan right now but he would need to make due, "I will take point with Knight-1 guarding my back. You will have to kill as many of these Bergbui as much as possible-"

"Jaune" she cut him off before pointing at one particular spot.

He strained his eyes before he picked up what she saw as well.

"Are those-"

"People? Possible, yes. Alive? I'm not sure" Pyrrha finished the sentence before frowning.

"Why aren't they attacking us?" she asked.

Hearing that and seeing the situation they were in, he couldn't help but frown as well. This many Grimm, standing here right in front of them without even the usual malice they have? Something was wrong, or just… _strange_.

Sheathing his sword, Jaune walked up to one of the Bergbui and…touched-moved his hand through one like it was not even there. After seeing that, it was easy to figure out that the Bergbui were illusion.

There was no Grimm Nest and all of the danger as just fake.

"Pyrrha!" he called out, "I think we're safe-"

Then he felt something grab his head and sling him to a wall. Something very much _real_ grabbed him and threw him into a wall.

BANG!

"JAUNE!"

His eyes blacked out for a second time.

-o-

The first thing Jaune literally saw was a blur. In fact, his entire vision was blurry to the point that he couldn't even get a proper balance even when it seemed that he was laid back next to a wall. That and his head hurt. A lot.

The last thing he remembered was being slammed into a hard object after something hit him…

Then it hit him. He was attacked, by a Grimm, that was _not_ an illusion. And not only that but also after he said that everything was fine and that all the Bergbuis they saw were all fakes that they didn't need to worry about as well.

" _This_ is so embarrassing" his mouth mumbled though he figured that it came out less coherent than what he thought he heard from his mouth. Taking a calming breathe in, because everything was _fine_ because nothing was killing him, Jaune waited the few moments it took for his vision to regain clarity and for his balance to steady.

He had a feeling that if he tried to stand up, he would've vomited.

With that not so amusing thought in place, Jaune scouted where he was using his sight though from the sounds of things, there were more than just Pyrrha here with them. Locking those extra people in place, he spotted two things.

Well-

Two _people_ actually. Both of which were dressed in outfits that _screamed_ Hunter with heavily modified weapons on both of them which only cemented that they were indeed Hunters in Jaune's mind. One was male and the other was female.

The former looked like what Jaune would think of when thinking of _eastern delicate male_ while the latter was…like a colour changed _Lavender_ of all things. No, Lavender wore purple…this one wore… _pink_? At least her skirt was in bright pink…the rest of the outfit wasn't that better.

The white shirt she thankfully wore with a darker jacket over it of all things had a _heart_ cut out in the middle of it.

 _'Actually can I have Lavender again? At least she doesn't make my head hurt by looking at her'_ he looked in terror at such a strange combination. The back of her skirt was even tied by a _bright pink ribbon_ as well.

The male, in Jaune's mind was dressed _much much_ better. A green tailcoat with white pants. Simple, easy to identify and something that didn't make his head _hurt_ of thinking of what kind of person would where such a thing.

Like Lavender.

And this girl.

 _'That is not a good sign'_ , he mused. If Pyrrha didn't get rid of them out of sheer principle, then the pair of Hunters were actually good people. As much as his red-head partner was rather passive, she _really_ didn't like arrogant people trying to get their way. Though, that may be why she and Ash have such a bad relationship with everyone else Pyrrha interact with were at least neutral to her.

 _Not that she had many friends…_

Pushing away the thoughts on his partner, Jaune realised that the girl spotted him awake and immediately came running towards him. Both the male and his partner looked at her in surprise before seeing him as well.

"Hey Renny! Mister leader here is finally awake! I mean he took a hard blow to the head but I didn't think he would wake up any time soon. I thought his head would turn into a pancake. I love pancakes Renny!" the girl spoke rapidly while jumping around and waving to this 'Renny'.

If Jaune tried a bit, he _might_ actually see under her skirt though he doubted he could actually see anything underneath. One, it was bad idea to do so to a Huntress and also having a Huntress as a partner, two _combat skirts_ are sheer bullshit in how well they covered everything.

Still, as long as this girl didn't speak _insane_ insane, she was still saner than Lavender. This…may be why Pyrrha seems to be tolerating this girl a lot more than she ever did with Lavender. That and even Jaune had little desire to team up with the strange girl for long period of time.

"Nora" the male spoke one word before sighing which was _not_ a good sign. It was a sigh of pure resignation that the blonde heard, something that commonly came from Hazel when dealing with his insane partner. Hopefully their relationship won't be the same as well?

"Let him have some room. Most people don't react well to someone unknown in their face when they wake up" he said dragging his partner back while Jaune's own approached at a steady pace.

"But I'm no stranger Renny! I'm Nora!" 'Nora' protested with a shout.

 _'Oh god it's like being with Hazel and Lavender again. I can't even deny it anymore'_ the blonde groaned without realising it.

Taking another look at the pair, he indeed confirmed that the two were _like_ the previous two Hunters that he and Pyrrha worked with in a past, personality or 'role' wise at least. The female was generally…not as mature or sane as most people and the other was calm, silent and put up with her.

Adding him into the mix was durable for him since he tends to lead. But adding Pyrrha to the mix as well…and the Lavender/Nora tends to annoy her more than she actually express.

 _'And speaking of Pyrrha..."_

"Jaune! Are you all right, I _told_ you to pay more attention and what do you do? Underestimate the enemy and almost _die_!" the red-head immediately slammed her fist into his gut while checking up on him.

Like Nora, her face was uncomfortably close to his though at least it was a familiar sight in a way. That and his face might be a bit redder than he remembered. Of course ther-wait _what_?!

" _Die_?" he choked out before his partner sighed.

"Your Aura Soldier exploded when your semblance activated when you hit the wall. It was probably a bad impact which _should've_ hurt you with some wounds but the fact that your semblance _activated_ is telling enough of the kind of blow to the head you got" she glared at him though there were hints of sorrow at her own words.

Now that he thought about it, there was _still_ this lumping pain in his head. Sure it wasn't blindingly painful than when he woke up but he must have hit his head pretty hard if his Aura hadn't already healed everything up by the time he woke up again. On another important note, he really needed to stop being knocked out so much.

"You really should stop getting into situation where you would've died otherwise" she shook her head, "You really have become more reckless since you've learnt about the fail-safe your semblance provides.

"Riiight" he droned before standing and patting off the dirt that was on his pants. He knew that she was right but there wasn't much he could do about it now. His semblance was a tool. And if it meant he had a tendency of helping him survive, he might as well exploit it as much as possible.

"You're not taking this serious are you?"

"Of course I am" he blinked, "We both know why I use Aura Soldiers a lot and it's not only because it provides some decent support when I can use them properly. I'm not that hurt Pyrrha."

"You shouldn't be getting hurt in the first place" the Huntress huffed before saying, "You must have hit your head a lot harder than I thought if your actions are to be believed. What happened to the cautious person who planned everything I met months ago?"

"Died with the town" he muttered but he suspected that she heard him. Thankfully she didn't push the issue nor commented on his answer. Still it looked like she was about saying something and Jaune sent her a _look_ before setting his eyes at the two strangers with them.

Naturally they looked mostly confused by their conversation not that they were intentionally eavesdropping.

"Well I think we should all introduce ourselves before anything else" he said to them.

He also ignored the look his partner was now giving him. He didn't know why she was glaring at him so much. They both knew that his semblance was a one life-up kind of thing and he was lucky he had it to save his life.

….

….

….

 _'That…is not a good sign on my part if I actually believe that'_ Jaune mentally swore.

He must have hit his head harder than he thought. If he was thinking he was _lucky_ to have a mostly useless semblance aside from making sure he didn't die in the worse possible way than he really needed to think things over. While having the ability to survive beyond normal matters was useful, it still didn't outweigh the demerits that came with it.

His Aura Soldier skill was the most screwed up thing…ever. Possibly useful in the future with conjunction with the effects his semblance would bring him but ultimately useless right now due to all of the restrictions. And benefit the skill would've given him disappeared thanks to his semblance.

Even so, he glared back at Pyrrha silently mainly because he _could_. And the fact there was no point arguing points that they had extensively already argued about. Yes his semblance was useful in a limited way, no he had any intentions of risking his life, and yes he just _did_ because he's a Huntsman and so on and so on.

Jaune swore that half his time with Pyrrha was on training the other third was on generally friendly conversations and the last fifth was on arguments on how much he should risk his life.

"Are they quarrelling? Are they having a couple quarrels? I never seen one of those before! By the way, I'm NORA! Nora Valkyrie" the orange-haired girl proclaimed too happily.

Pyrrha twitched when hearing that. He couldn't help but to blush slightly at the seeming accusation. This was really the first time anyone actually called out that they were a couple quarrelling. It was a strange feeling to him.

Thankfully the other male had much more sense to him.

"Nora, it's impolite to speak about people like that. I'm sure that they are not fighting _that_ way. By the way, my name is Lie Ren but you can call me Ren" said Ren with a slight bow to both of them.

The impression Jaune had of him was…he was polite. And somewhat reliable in a weird way that he couldn't put his finger on.

Smiling slightly to Ren, Jaune introduced himself as well, "I'm Jaune Arc."

"And I'm Pyrrha Nikos" his partner followed up.

"Nice to meet you both!"

Nora moved in for a hug but Ren pulled her back. This caused her to wave her legs in the air as her upper body sprang back while her lower moved forward before she landed again. He wasn't sure but he thought he saw a sigh from Pyrrha for a moment there in addition to one from Ren.

There was a moment of silence after that but he ignored that.

"Nice to meet you too Nora" Jaune continued to smile before turning towards Ren, "You too."

Before anyone else could speak, he continued saying, "Now that we're all introduced, we have a slight-no major problem. Particularly in this very mine that we're all trapped in."

Ren looked like he knew what he was talking about though Nora seemed ignorant or was, at least pretending to and deterring to her partner.

"Can either of you tell us what exactly is going on in this town? All we know is that _something_ is happening and we've been seeing a lot of illusions and hallucinations that moment we entered this town. Besides that, the towns in this region are _all_ having nightmares" said Jaune.

Answering the probe for information, Ren replied, "From what I-we could tell, this is the work of a Grimm. An exceedingly powerful one but yet still a _Grimm_ nonetheless. I was not aware that the radius of influence spread so far."

 _Or could go so far_ , was left unsaid.

The region itself wasn't so small. While there were no more than half a dozen towns, each of them was spread out a day or two worth's of travel to a civilian pace. It would take you half a week to a week to go from one end of the region to the other. The area being affect is by no means small.

"A Grimm" the blonde muttered.

He wasn't sure what to think of for all of this. Despite improving a lot recently, he still at most faced a B rank threat and it was also the only one that he had experienced on that level.

E rank threats were dangerous to individuals.

D rank threats were dangerous to groups.

C rank threats were dangerous to towns.

B rank threats were dangerous to a region of towns.

A rank threats were dangerous to a significant portion of the Kingdom.

S rank threats were outright monsters that threatened Kingdoms and Remnant as a whole.

From the fact that whatever Grimm was doing all of this affected the region, it would be rated at _least_ a B rank threat. Nightmares caused terror, which in turn caused more Grimm to attack. This was not a situation you could laugh at.

"Do you know of any Grimm that could cause nightmares or create illusions?" he turned to ask his partner.

"Not at all which is most distressing" she replied with a shake of her head. The fact she didn't meant that either a) It was rare to encounter b) It was something thought extinct or c) something completely new.

All of them were bad in their own ways and yet didn't change their situation.

"Damn" he sighed hearing that answer and moved his hand to rub his forehead, "Normally I would just think and then say to 'screw it' and leave due to the risks but I don't think any of us have that option."

He glanced at Ren, "How long have you two been in these mines? I don't think we saw any footprints when we went in nor did you trip the traps."

"Around three days ago" Ren answered.

"Damn."

"Is there anything else you wish to know?"

Jaune thought about it before asking, "Do you happen to know a way out? If not, do you know where the source- _grimm_ is?"

"No to the first and yes to the second."

"Great…" he really didn't if knowing how to find the powerful Grimm is better than knowing if they could escape or not.

"But I can find a way out if you really wish to" the other Huntsman added. He could his attention from that alone.

As such he almost demanded with a snarl, " _How_?"

"His semblance" Nora explained, "Renny can _hide_ from Grimm. Well the emotion bit at least. He's good enough to hide a small group of people near him now."

That was…quite a useful semblance to have. Practical as well though it was questionable on the details on how he hid him and if this could help him hide from other creatures aside from Grimm.

"Actually it's the power to mask emotions temporary. Incidentally, Grimm uses some sort of sense to detect emotions when they can't see humans. I am not sure if they actually have a sense of smell or taste" Ren continued with the explanation.

"Does that mean travelling with you would stop the attacks from the Bergbuis?" he asked.

Ren nodded.

"Good" Jaune moved to clasp Ren's shoulders, " _Welcome to the team_."

Strangely enough, Ren looked confused muttering out a ,"Wha-" before Nora seemed to connect what he said with what this meant and let out a shout, "YEAHHHHHH!"

"Jaune…" Pyrrha's strained voice came behind him.

He raised an eyebrow and argued, "While Nora is…too similar to Lavender and I know how you dislike her, Ren is simply too useful to deny over that. That and we might as well team up even temporary until we all escape."

"That's not what I meant" she said, her voice was pitched in…fear? And why was Ren's face white and Nora suddenly quiet?

Therefore, Jaune Arc took it much will power to _not_ scream out like a little girl seeing a blob of _darknesshatemalicedeathdespaircrushedhope_ that seemed to move and flow slowly before seemingly dismissing them before leaving. He paled when he remembered where he _felt_ that kind of feeling before.

He didn't know if it was better or worse that it didn't have a solid form…definitely worse. Jaune could think of a number of ways things would go bad if it didn't have a 'solid stable form' to fall back on.

"This is bad" he whispered, " _Really really bad_. I thought _that_ thing was an abnormality or a new type of Grimm-"

"There are a lot of those things moving about in these mines and from what I can tell; all of them are connected in some way. There was one time we accidentally got spotted by it…" Ren equally whispered though calming him down.

"Very bad things happened" Nora almost whimpered at the memory.

Jaune took glances at their darker than normal eye that were from many sleepless nights, "Illusions I'm guessing?"

"Also very difficult to damage and no lack of _many_ ways to attack that make it extremely difficult to predict" the other Huntsman added with gloom, "Nora caused a cave-in just for us to escape before I reactivated my semblance to its fullest extent. She is not allowed to use her weapon aside from that."

"Magnhild is a really _cool_ weapon though" Nora protested though Jaune had a pretty good reason why Ren banned her from using her weapon. Looking at her weapon it seemed to be a small hammer-

"See!"

-Which extended into a very large war-hammer before shifting into a grenade launcher of all things.

"I can see why you made sure to only use it in extreme cases" he looked in surprise at Ren. Most Hunters unfortunately are lacking somewhat in common sense. Of course, common sense would dictate you to run _away_ from Grimm where Hunters do the opposite.

"I'm guessing that we should actually show off our weapons to know what we're capable of" Jaune said after a moment's consideration. Most Hunters liked and disliked showing off their weapons.

One, it was because their weapons were usually as flashy as the wielder _wanted_ and cooperation was needed to work with Hunters that were all but complete strangers. But on the contrary, most Hunters didn't like other people knowing _what_ they could do and possibly counter them.

For example, Jaune now _knew_ that Nora's weapon was a war-hammer that had an alternate grenade-launcher mode. But he didn't know anything else about it. What was its firing rate? What kind of ammo it used? Did the war-hammer form have other special features? How did they _work_?

Similarly he also only knew the general description of how Pyrrha's own weapon worked. Sure he knew more than most people saw in that her Milo weapon had three forms but he didn't know the core mechanics of how it worked to her advantage and disadvantage.

"All I have right now is this sword and shield since my Hunter weapon is still being made" he admitted.

A Hunter's weapon was sometimes their pride. Not having a proper one meant you were either new, too poor or wasn't taking the profession seriously.

"I have Milo and Akouo here" Pyrrha followed through as well, "Milo can change…from spear to rifle form."

He didn't question the fact that she didn't tell them that her weapon had three forms. Not to mention that Xiphos and Javelin modes of her weapon's form were really similar in how it looked.

Seeing that everyone else showed off their weapons, Ren did so as well bringing out two pistols with a bladed edge coming down from the point of the barrel, "There are called Stormflower and I think you all can see how they are used."

He flexed and the blades pointed straight before another motion flicked them back downwards.

While Jaune couldn't see the quality or craftsmanship in the dual weapons, he knew that they were probably more effective against the Grimm than his own weapon at hand. Not to mention that it even had a range option as well.

"Hmm…Pyrrha and I will probably take point since we have shields, or should Nora and I do that and Pyrrha take the back?" he wondered aloud. Formation was important even when improvisation was a highly used thing for Hunters.

"Oooh! Oh! I wanna fight at the front-"

"I suggest we _don't_ place Nora near the front" Ren cut in, "She can't use her main weapon without causing a lot of structural damage in this environment."

"How's her hand to hand?" Jaune asked, curious.

The other male made a face and didn't say anything but he got the message. Nora was either bad at melee combat or _that_ good at causing destruction even with her bare hands. Not someone you wanted to fight underground in any case.

"Anyway, let's go to find out where this Grimm is before we escape. I think the Guild would be _very_ interested in a report of a Grimm this power" he said before motioning for everyone to move.

No need to stay in a place that is likely to be where _that_ kind of Grimm would go near even if it's an off chance.

-o-

An hour later, Jaune Arc was cradling the bloody body of Pyrrha Nikos.

* * *

 **A/N:** **Annnnnnnnnnnnd it's been a while. Seriously, it's been like...over 2 weeks. Admittedly my fault because I decided the first half of the chapter needed a _complete_ rewrite which really added several days where I could've posted this chapter but didn't. Thankfully this version of the chapter is much better than my first draft (at least in the first half, couldn't be bothered to do a complete rewrite of the second half as well).**

 **Anyway, I suppose it's going to be a habit to take a long time to write long chapters now. And it's going to get worse next month when Uni starts again for me. I distinctly remembering one of my series _dying_ because I didn't have the time or motivation to write more thanks to Uni. **

**Besides that, lots of stuff happened in life for me, well on the internet I guess. Lots of new novels to read...and that's pretty much it admittedly. Reading takes at least the same amount of time I have in the day as writing so it was one or the other.**

 **Also, I introduced Ren and Nora! _Completely_ not part of my plan. Seriously. I bloody rolled for Jaune and Pyrrha to meet people and my plan was to have captured/trapped civilian people as part of this chapter. Naturally I rolled a 98 for this aspect of the chapter...at least it wasn't a 100. Otherwise I would need to write in Ozpin or Cinder...or team RWBY if it was a 99. **

**Hopefully I got their personalities right. I pretty much based Hazel and Lavender (OC characters) off them personality wise.**

 **Interesting enough, rolling on whether certain parts of a chapter goes good or bad actually makes my life _so much easier_ for thinking up of what would happen in a chapter. Sure I would never use such methods for the most important bits in the series but for this? Yeah, rolling die really makes it easy to make 'chance' in stories more real. I was certainly amused at how bad Pyrrha rolled at that last bit.**

 **Oh, I'm still deciding whether or not to do some rewrite in earlier chapters or just charge forward. Decisions, decisions. *Completely ignoring how I placed the chapter at a cliffhanger and yet remember complaining about them last chapter***

 **Yeah, hopefully the next chapter will be written up quickly.**


	14. Chapter 14

**Disclaimer: I own nothing of RWBY which belongs to Rooster Teeth and the late Monty Owm.**

* * *

 **Chapter 14**

 **A Nightmare Finale**

Taking a moment to consider the number of different types of Grimm there are in Remnant, most people would conclude that they were creatures that imitate other creatures in form. This for the most common of Grimm is correct. Boarbatusk, Beowold, Ursa, Death Stalker, Nevermore and King Taijitu and so on are considered the most common Grimm out there and thus many counter-measures have been made against them.

These kinds of Grimm have a base threat rating of E-C on average. Threats at this rank are things that even large groups of weak Hunters can deal with on their own without much support.

Then what of the more uncommon and rarer Grimm?

Grimm such as Griffons, Goliath and Beringel tend to be much more powerful than their peers for reasons generally unknown. Is it because they are hunted less or perhaps because these kinds of Grimm are less common near human settlements where Hunters kill all surrounding Grimm frequently.

These kinds of Grimm tend to rank around the C ranking as threats though can easily be bumped up to a B rank threat rating.

Of course, you must also consider some of the more unique and rare Grimm out there. Sometimes Grimm don't take on the forms of creatures that exist but rather of those that exist in myths and legends.

For example, Dragons never existed in Remnant and yet there are Sea Dragon Grimm. There are no golems in Remnant and yet there are Golem Grimm called Geist not to mention Even the Nightmare-like Nuckelavee Grimm that have destroyed many settlements by hunting them all down in their Wild Hunts.

Each and every one of these Grimm average at a base threat rating of B rank or higher and when you consider every other Grimm out there and what their base threat rating are, you can see a significant rise in danger associated with dealing with these rarer Grimm.

Then…

And then you get to the most dangerous kinds of Grimm. Abnormalities. You cannot predict when they will appear, how they will appear or what you should do to try and prevent them from appearing. The data simply doesn't exist or their unpredictability make it almost impossible to keep track of them.

Unlike the before mentioned Grimm, you cannot _name_ them but rather just classify them.

Dragon Grimm.

Behemoth Grimm.

Leviathan Grimm.

Titan Grimm.

And so on and so on. These are the Grimm that are the greatest threat to humanity and yet at the same time the rarest and hardest to kill. Countless Hunter teams all brimming with the strongest elites have been made into blood spatters within moments against these kinds of Grimm.

Is it therefore so unusual that the mentioned above kinds of Grimm are all rated S rank threats?

Of course, not _all_ of these kinds of Grimm are S rank threats. Most of them are actually A rank threats or even B rank threats when they are first 'born' into Remnant. B rank is _much_ more manageable than A and especially S rank threats. Therefore each Kingdom has priority of destroying such Grimm as soon as possible.

Still, even if they are _just_ rated B rank threats doesn't mean you can underestimate them. Most of these Grimm have special characteristics or are plain difficult in too many ways to count. Among the most difficult of the final classification of Grimm are those which affect reality even more than those which affect space and time itself.

For the most troublesome kinds of Grimm without form which dwells and gains power by corrupting the dreams of countless that would eventually corrupt even reality are called _Nightmare Grimm_.

It is not something that mere D-C ranked Hunters could face.

Not to mention, protocol is to _escape_ before _reporting_ so the Kingdom can deal with it.

-o-

The feeling of dread and general suffering, Jaune noted, has become worse the more they went closer to the deepest parts of the mine. If not for some _duty_ he had in nosing into dangerous business, he would've left a long time ago. However he still couldn't shake the bad feeling he was getting.

Like he was doing something wrong and going on like this would end up as a tragedy.

 _'Must be this feeling of dread making me feel like this…'_ he mused before keeping an eye out. He had to thank Ren a lot after this. His semblance was _especially_ useful in getting around the issue of Grimm attack even if it drains a lot of his Aura.

"How much longer till we get to our destination?" Jaune asked.

He wasn't impatient but rather concern of the panting and sweat Ren was having the longer they took. It wasn't healthy to drain your Aura so much…even if it was an admittedly effective training method to increase your Aura count when you did decide to train it.

Obviously Ren didn't have much Aura to use compared to him. And in hindsight not many his age did except for Pyrrha whom he was slowly catching in terms of Aura quantity. Nora was surprisingly quiet though that may be in her character as far as he knew.

"Possibly another few minutes I think?" Ren answered and asked at the same time. It looked like he didn't know precisely but that may be due to the strain of using his semblance and Aura for so long making it hard for him to tell.

A few more minutes passed and yet while they were not at their destination, Ren somehow managed to look _worse_ for wear. Pyrrha was giving him sympathetic looks and Jaune definitely pitied him at this point.

"Renny, are you okay?" Nora looked worried, "We've been going for really long and you've haven't taken a break. You won't last if you use your semblance for so long."

Ren opened his mouth to speak but ended up coughing heavily before the _feeling_ that a coat around Jaune's body (and everyone else) disappeared. At the same time, he felt a sharp series of shivered running up his spine causing him to draw his weapon.

Looking to his current team-mates, with the exception of Ren, everyone had drawn their weapons including Nora.

"Overworking only to fall at the worse time is something we wish to avoid. Please don't overdo it" Pyrrha chided while holding her shield up in front of her body.

Mentally ordering Knight-1 closer to Ren to allow it to more easily sacrifice itself in case something decided to attack now, Jaune added his own words, "I rather have you use your semblance while we're _running away_ instead of trying to get closer to this Grimm we're trying to discover."

"My apologises" the exhausted Huntsman replied.

Rolling his eyes, Jaune made sure to cover the ground that Pyrrha and Nora didn't in their own guard. More than that, he had his passive skill which when he could react in time was a powerful tool to dodge attacks and protect allies when needed.

By the time Ren did recover enough that he could stand, there were no attacks. That was a good thing at least in their favour. However at the same time, it looked like Ren had run out of Aura to use his semblance so extensively for a while.

"Don't worry about it" Jaune patted his shoulder, "We're not that weak to die so easily. I still have around a third of my Aura left which may still be more than your maximum amount of Aura!"

"That is-I am not sure if I should be assured or insulted by that" Ren admitted.

"Take it as a reassurance. There's no time to be insulted by each other at this point. We're really deep in the mine now and fighting is the worst thing we could do" Jaune relaxed his guard a bit but was walking in a manner that made it easier for him to block attacks at any moment.

Nora decided to appear at that moment, "And it avoids me breaking his legs if he's picking a fight with you!"

"Of course" a wry smile appeared on Ren's face as Jaune paled. Of course, Jaune didn't know that Nora was joking most of the time when she said that so he took her threat seriously enough that he physically moved away a good distance.

"Now that you've recovered" Pyrrha spoke up, "We should quickly go. The more time we spend in this mine, the higher chance of danger finding us."

He nodded to those words and turned to Ren once again asking, "How much more until we reach where the Grimm is."

 _'He whether we decide to fight it or run away as fast as we can'_ he mentally added at the same time.

"Not that much longer. The increased strain that caused me to collapse…is due to _something_ resisting my semblance as abnormal as it sounds. The Grimm is near" the other male answered plainly.

Jaune frowned. There was something off about this situation that he was feeling for a long while now but he couldn't figure it out.

He started to say, "Hey, don't you-"

 _Cr-ack…_

Heads shot to the sound of the wall next to them cracking. It was a single small crack at first and before he could even relieve himself that it was _just_ a small crack, _something_ pounded the wall and countless more cracks appeared.

Before they could even get a proper defence or even speak to each other, the wall burst out.

Then-

 _Black liquid, filth and horrors followed by countless red eyes drowned him in their hate._

-o-

 _Jaune Arc set on the dinner table waiting for the food to come. Violet and Aqua were talking about some boring girl talk thing and everyone else was doing their own thing before mum called them all to eat dinner._

 _He could see Bianca sparing with dad using swords and other weapons that he could barely see in the blurs that were their strikes. Rosemary was on the couch reading a book of some people romancing each other. Olivia was helping out with mum._

 _And Jade, last he saw her she decided to sleep in her room though mysteriously she would always show up just in time for food to be served. It was one of those strange things that he put up with his many sisters. All of them were just…weird._

 _Well most of them were Huntresses and according to dad, being a Hunter made people madder than usual so Jaune expected that such a thing to happen to him as well when he was old enough to be one._

 _Of course, dad frankly refuses to teach him much besides the basics and condition which he did every day. However he never managed to grow as fast as his sisters when it came to combat. Rosemary said he was thinking too much. Bianca thought he needed more of this 'muscle memory' before hurting him a lot._

 _Mum found out and Jaune found out that his mum was super-strong that even his dad was beaten up easily that day._

 _"Dinner's ready!" mum's voice called out to everyone and once again Jaune saw something that could be said to be impossible from people not a Hunter._

 _Jade was naturally somehow the first person to the table appearing just before mum called out. Next were Bianca and dad sending winds when they moved at super-human speeds to the table without weapons on hand. After that Rosemary appeared silently opposite of him before Violet and Aqua casually strolled into their seats as well._

 _The last to the table was of course his mum. Joan Arc started plating down the food which he knew was-_

 _"Urgh…_ what is that _?" he pointed and asked of the black sludge that his mum spooned onto his plate._

 _"Human remains of course" his_ _ **m**_ _Ot_ _ **h**_ _Er s_ _ **M**_ _I_ _ **l**_ _ed._

 _"Wait-_ what _?!" Jaune looked startled and couldn't help but to pale and shake a bit when his sisters and dad started to eat it. He didn't know what to do._

 _When he was about to ask dad on what to do, Jaune noticed something. It was bad, like really really bad kind of bad. Dad was melting. His hair dripped off, face seemed to slide off before his head inflated and melted down like the rest of his body._

 _Jaune's eyes widened in horror as his father melted before his very eyes._

 _"DAD!"_

 _However things got worse. Just when he got off his seat to run to where his dad was his sisters started to melt as well. Jaune couldn't do anything but watch. Watch as his family one by one quickly disappeared in the worse possible way._

 _It was like they were candle wax being melted._

 _However his mum was fine. She was still fine. No matter what she seemed to be fine, right?_

 _"Mum?" he weakly let out as she hugged him with a smile that told him that it was all right to cry._

 _He did._

 _Then, he felt something was dripping on him. He couldn't help but to look. He looked up and saw that his mum was melting as well. She was meltingmeltingonhimhecoudln'tdoanything!_

 _He screamed._

 _Black wax drowned him._

 _The Nightmares continued_.

-o-

 _Jaune was nervous. Of course he was nervous, he practically ran away from home to be a Hunter. He had just registered as a Huntsman to the Guild and from what that old friendly guy as the receptionist told him, 'in the system' or whatever that meant._

 _Hopefully that meant his family couldn't find him and drag him back home by force. Being a Huntsman was his dream! A hero of the people. To protect and be praised is something he looked up to as a child. He couldn't do that detained in safety._

 _"Now let's see what this new system thing does for me" he muttered._

 _He wasn't the best at technology but he knew that the Guild had a way to track people down and such. Of course, his A.R.C system was upgraded to the A.U.R.A system which was basically the Hunter version of the chips that are implanted into everyone born in Remnant. Jaune wasn't sure what the difference between the two systems was but he figured it was an upgrade of some kind._

 _Of course now, he had to figure out what to do. He had a lot of things to do now like making money, taking missions and getting food. Not to mention he needed a place to live in. While Aura practically allowed anyone to sleep decently outside, he had no intentions of being one such person._

 _Perhaps he could get team-mates to help him out even if he's a rookie to all of this. Decisions, decisions to be made._

 _Then the Sc_ _ **r**_ _E_ _ **A**_ _mi_ _ **nG**_ _s_ _ **Ta**_ _r_ _ **Ted**_ _._

 _"What the-" Jaune grabbed onto a non-existent weapon at his side. He had no weapon; of course he had no weapon. He had no money and also couldn't just steal a weapon from his family. That would be suicide._

 _However he still cursed himself for not stealing on now because he might die because of that. Looking frantically, he recalled that there was safety within the Guild building and started to make his way to it while other Hunters ran towards the screaming._

 _He wasn't a coward, he was afraid and without a weapon. There was no point rushing to his death without a weapon, no skill and no way to even protect himself. He had just recently got his Aura unlocked as well!_

 _Jaune Arc wasn't going to die here._

 _Managing to get to the Guild building in time, he was let in easily enough since while he wasn't a 'civilian' anymore, he was just a recent rookie that was greener than the greenhorns of most new Hunters. Jaune sighed in relief as he knew he was at least protected of whatever was happening._

 _The person next to him burst into blood, gore and bones. And from the remains that stuck on Jaune's body like paint on a sticky wall, a Grimm emerged._

 _People started to scream._

 _"Eh?"_

 _Stunned, he barely managed to drop down to the ground when his legs lost their strength on him. However, that saved him as the new Grimm shaped in the form of a human but inside-out leaped and grabbed onto the person behind him before ripping his throat out._

 _Tears leaking out, Jaune made a scramble away from the chaos but he was too late._

 _More and more people started to burst into pieces before more humanoid-Grimm appearing from their corpses. And all of them started pinning him down and eatinghimpiecebypiecelimbbylimb._

 _He screamed._

 _His body was being consumed as he felt everything._

 _The Nightmares continued_.

-o-

 _They were at the entrance of the mine. Pyrrha just managed to encourage him enough that his fears would drag him down. Two Aura Soldiers stood by his side. They could do this. Jaune had to believe they could do this else they would be just sending themselves to their deaths._

 _"Let's go in" he said._

 _He took a s_ _ **tE**_ _p I_ _ **N**_ _t_ _ **o**_ _t_ _ **H**_ _e_ _ **M**_ _i_ _ **Ne**_ _._

 _And then everything bad started happening at once. He heard his partner scream his name as the entrance they had just stepped into started to fall on them. There was no time to retreat; he dragged his body and partner forward into the mine. They would find a way out later._

 _Their bodies rolled downwards stopping only after it felt like he had just gained a few bruises all over his body. His partner was in better shape but her lip was clearly bleeding and he winced at the sight of a rock being impaled through her arm._

 _"Don't worry" she smiled. She always smiled no matter how bad it was only to make sure that he didn't panic and make things worse._

 _Her eyebrows furrowed before in one clean pull, she tore her arm off._

 _"What?" his eyes widened at the sight. Blood sprayed out for a moment before starting dripping all over the floor. He absently touched his cheek where he felt some of the blood spatter over him._

 _By the time he realised what the hell just happened, his hand was shaking and Pyrrha stopped looking like a human and more like a monster. The blood didn't bleed red anymore but black. Her eyes turned black with irises of red with black cracks appearing all over face extending down her body with her armour rotting off._

 _Jaune didn't even have a the mind to blush at the sight of his partner naked in favour of the horror he was seeing as something coming through her body, corrupting it by the moment. And worse, he couldn't even do anything to stop it._

 _It took less than ten seconds for Pyrrha Nikos the human to disappear and in its place, a Grimm to appear. A Grimm that he noted was wearing the body of his friend, mentor and partner._

 _"What the fuck?!" he screamed as the Grimm snatched away his sword and shield with unnatural ease before pinning him to the wall._

 _"_ _ **JaUneeEeeEE**_ _" the creature crooned with a smile that quite literally broke through her face._

 _Looking in horrific fascination, Jaune saw as the pieces of what was once his partner's face crumble like dirt and shatter like glass the more the face moved. It was disturbing on so many levels that he couldn't move. Not that he could since he could feel his wrists being crushed while being pinned._

 _Then the creature wearing Pyrrha's face kissed him._

 _It tasted like ash and blood._

 _And somethingcreeped happenedinsidehim causingcorruptingauraconsumed himbeingreplaced tobodycan'tmove spitrejectchangelostcause outblackviensappearing somethingblackgoregrimm_ _ **o**_ _ut_ _ **tH**_ _ebO_ _ **D**_ _ytw_ _ **is**_ _TTu_ _ **rn**_ _rOta_ _ **t**_ _e_ _ **S**_ _ **o**_ _Fh_ _ **a**_ _ir_ _ **T**_ _uR_ _ **n**_ _eD_ _ **wH**_ _ITef_ _ **Ac**_ _ecR_ _ **aCk**_ _e_ _ **D**_ _ **hiS**_ _He_ _ **rtH**_ _EirN_ _ **oWW**_ _heN Mo_ _ **UthhElp**_ _ca_ _ **N'ttHi**_ _n_ _ **KanYmOre**_ _-_

-o-

"What…just happened?"

Jaune Arc opened his eyes to find that his body lay on the ground uncomfortably. Groaning while checking where he was hurt, he found that while he didn't have any broken bones, several of them were fractured enough that he needed hours to heal.

 _No no no_ , backing up a few steps on what happened, Jaune tried recalling what just happened. He had just woken up in the middle of what seemed to be black sludge. Not to mention that it was the same black sludge that seemed to have knocked him out and caused _nightmares_ to appear in his head after knocking him out.

He was quite sure that this black sludge substance was part of a Grimm or at least created by a Grimm.

 _It tasted like ash and blood._

Shivering, he had a thought to try rubbing his tongue on his shirt, pants or even arm to get the _taste_ out but those were dirtied by the black sludge already and would've made things worse. And before he could even think of the situation he was in right now, he couldn't help but remember the _feeling_ of corruption running through his body before it disappeared.

"Oh God…" he muttered seeing the state of…everything.

Even barely being able to see well to the dark, he had this feeling that _everything_ was covered by the taint. He hoped his Aura purged it from his body. He hoped that Aura can block whatever effects it has on the body.

If not, then there was no true direct counter that he had to whatever this Grimm did to him. Moreover, if it affected a Hunter like him to this extent, then what could it do to people without Aura? Would they even be able to wake up if the substance touched them?

 _'It was no wonder why the people in this region were having nightmares'_ the thought came to mind.

He recalled the same _type_ of Grimm nearby the town that he and Pyrrha ran away from recently. Could it affect other people by its sheer existence? Jaune didn't want to know but he knew that they had to get out of this place now and hope the Guild can help them-help everyone in the end.

Moving his head to a nearby wall, he pushed his body and steadily stood up while searching for anyone else.

"Now where is Pyrrha" Jaune coughed out. Not to disrespect the other two that came with them, he would almost every time favour his partner over them if it came to a choice on who to save.

And he knew that they were the same with each other when it came to priorities.

Eventually he found his partner. She was still unconscious. He placed a hand on her neck and felt a pulse.

 _'She is still alive'_ relief filled him. However checking on her body, he found that one of her arms and a leg were clearly broken and there were large chunks of her armour that were heavily damaged. Chances are, she wouldn't be able to move and he would need to move her.

But for whatever reason or chance, her shield and weapon remained intact. Seeing that, Jaune remembered to check on the state of his own equipment and dropped his eyes seeing the clear broken parts.

His sword was snapped in half, there were large holes in his shield and his armour was non-existence at this point. Still, Jaune figured he was lucky enough that he had an Aura Soldier out else he could've died when that Grimm left Pyrrha in such a bad state.

"Hey…can you help me with Ren?" a weak voice asked.

Hearing that, he turned and found that Ren and Nora weren't in that better shape than Pyrrha. Ren was in worse shape than the Huntress and was clearly unconscious as well but what was noteworthy was that he was on top of Nora and was clearly injured.

He had used his body to protect her.

Although he was hesitant on leaving Pyrrha even for a moment he still replied, "Yeah. Let me just get there…when I can."

Checking his Aura level, he didn't even have 10% left. He was clearly in the red and so was everyone else along with all the wounds that they have. Jaune was only spared because his semblance protected him.

Limping over, he pulled the Huntsman off Nora's body and with a grunt; he checked whether Ren was still alive. If he wasn't then they could just leave his body here and be less burdened on leaving. It was a cruel thought but survival never made compromises.

"He's alive" Jaune muttered and he could see the orange-haired girl relax slightly to his words.

"Good."

"We need to get out of here."

He looked back to the path they were on and it was thankfully not collapsed or worse. They can backtrack quite easily.

"Our partners?"

"We carry."

Nora nodded and moved closer to Ren while he limped over to Pyrrha with shaking legs. Still, he had experienced a lot worse when his partner decided to make sure he knew how to function while in pain and in a bad state.

Grunting in pain from his ribs by reaching down, Jaune managed to grab Pyrrha by the waist and sluing her under his arm after a few moments of experimenting on the most painless ways of carrying her. Looking over he saw that Nora at least had the strength to pulled and throw her partner over her shoulder in one move.

 _'She has a surprising amount of strength'_ he noted. If there is a cave-in then she might be the solution to getting through it…or cause another one to happen on their heads.

"Where do we go?" she asked bluntly. It was a bit obvious to see how much that she followed Ren and not the other way around, a bit similar to Pyrrha now that he thought about it.

"Backtrack. Backtrack as much as possible before escaping."

"And if there's no path to go back to?" her grip around Ren tightened enough that it was visible.

He didn't want to answer that.

"…If we stay here we die or worse" he pointed at the black sludge all around them.

"The blacky stuff?"

"Caused the creepy nightmares to happen and almost killed us all. We're very lucky to be alive and fortunate enough be awake…if it's possible to wake up after so long" he glanced at his still asleep partner. Hopefully she would wake up sooner than later.

"Ren will wake up."

He smiled slightly, "So will Pyrrha."

 _A feeling of dread and familiar horror washed through him._

"That was…" Nora started shaking which was doing no favours to Ren. He couldn't blame her since his body was shaking even more than before. Jaune felt his body _remember_ the torment that it was placed under.

The dream was so real that it was like reliving his memories before they got distorted and turned into nightmares.

"We have to move" Nora didn't response and he felt like slapping her, " _NOW!_ "

With vigour that they didn't know they had, the pair of Hunters, both carrying their partners moved at a steady fast pace through the tunnels while sending short words to each other frequently to make sure that neither were lost or left behind.

They didn't know what was truly going on. Why they were left alive, why the Grimm didn't just kill them when it could or what was the deal with the nightmares and visions they got from they were knocked out from whatever attacked.

But…

They knew they were being Hunted.

And neither of them slowed down. They were also carrying the lives of their partners in their arms.

-o-

On a reflection of his life Jaune could easily tell the moment when his dreams of being a 'Hero' overwhelmed his more distinct dream of living past being a Hunter and experiencing the family life his own parents provided him.

It was when he buried the bodies of so many he knew.

No, it was even earlier than that when the change happened. The events that ended the lives of so many innocents were only the tipping point where the gears shifted the most that there was no turning back then. It was when he met Pyrrha that he had started changing. Jaune Arc before meeting her was a loser that would eventually settle down and be content with the life he had.

He would never risk his life as he is right now.

He would never endure pains to protect other as he is right now.

He would never go out of his way to save someone with all his strength.

The current Jaune Arc was all of that and _more_. Even though he was afraid every time he was faced with Grimm and death, even though he knew that he just wanted to be a coward and run away, he stepped forward. The current him right now would forgo his own safety if it meant helping Nora and Ren survive this _with_ him.

There was really no chance of the previous Jaune of months past, someone who never had a proper team-mate nor learnt the importance of aiding others would consider what he was thinking right now.

How they _all_ had to get through this together.

"Left or right?" he was suddenly asked.

"Either. Both go up. No point in making dead-ends going _up_. _All_ paths are our exit."

"Left it is."

He agreed without question and ran with the Huntress up the path that they may or may not have passed previously. They ran, they _ran_ away from the depths of the mine where they had experienced something horrible and to a force that they could barely call a Grimm.

And they eventually escaped.

The first thing that hit him was the light. Sunlight was _especially_ brighter than he remembered after hours inside what was a dim dark place. Even while closing his eyes quickly; it still didn't stop the pain from making him drop his partner on the ground. Not that he managed to stand long after from exhaustion.

"Oh _God_ , the light _hurts_!" he heard a scream.

Fearing for the worse, the Huntsman dared open and glare at the spot where his temporary team-mate was-

-Only to see her perfectly fine, well, not so much as she just stared into the sun while her eyes were hypersensitive to light.

"ARRRGGHHHHHHHHH!"

And now she was rolling on the ground not even conscious of rolling over Ren.

He couldn't help it, he giggled. The giggle turned into a chuckle after a moment before ending up as a booming laugh that he couldn't control. There were just…so _many_ ways things could've went wrong when they were escaping.

There was so many times where he thought that they would be trapped and killed by the roaming Grimm.

But they escaped. Despite having to carry their partners, despite being so low of Aura that their wounds stopped healing, despite _everything_ -

 _They managed to escape_.

Jaune couldn't stop laughing that someone like _he_ managed to get out of a hopeless situation without being killed or even crippled! Better yet, Pyrrha was here if still unconscious.

"We managed to escape" he whispered. There was no need to shout, no need to yell out the fact to make it more real. A tear slipped down his face before what remained of his laugh ended in a broken series of chuckles.

He thought he was going to die, for sure and yet he didn't.

"We really did" he heard a voice to his right. Looking there he saw that Nora had the same expression on her face as he if he had a mirror on hand. It was the look of someone exhausted, worn out and almost broken who just achieved…

 _Hope_.

Then a hand slapped his face making him blink.

"Oi! What was that for-" he called out irritated that _someone_ dared to interrupt this experience. The experience that he was free-

His eyes widened and his body _froze_ on the spot seeing where he was. There was no light. There was only darkness and of a familiar texture of where he once was and _did escape_. No, this can't be, no _no no no no-_

A hand slapped his face a second time before the panic only partly disappeared. Green eyes zoomed in that he knew belonged to his partner before she shouted, "Jaune! _Snap out of it! We have to run!"_

Before he could even think of a response or fall into grief and despair; a hand grabbed his and started dragging him off the ground before running with him. Being…'waken up' Jaune was understandably a bit slow on the uptake but he quickly hurried his steps seeing what they were running _from_.

You couldn't call it a solid creature and yet it was partly solid. It was more of a combination of solid and liquid in how it looked and moved. It didn't have limbs to move but rather its body rolled forward like a liquid. But it also could 'grab' things to drag itself forward. How it did so…was strange to look at.

Then came the _feeling_ and after that, the shock he felt _seeing_ the tide of what was a _Grimm_ chase after them. No, it was beyond merely chasing them at this point but rather it _hunting_ them through sheer…he didn't even know how to call what it was doing.

Still, it didn't stop from speaking his mind.

" _Holy motherfucking grimm-sticks on fire!_ " he screamed.

…Well scream in this case.

" _What creative language!_ " a voice shouted from a fair distance away ahead of them and therefore him.

Well, in hindsight he would probably do the same. Or there wasn't that much time between when the Grimm started chasing them and the time it took Jaune to wake up from…whatever he had just experienced.

" _Less talking more running!_ " another voice, _male_ , also shouted to Nora.

" _Way ahead of you Renny!"_ there was a surprisingly gleeful laugh before Pyrrha decided their running pace was too slow and he pushed his legs to the limits to keep up.

"Try to keep up with me!" his partner advised with a short shout before speeding up even more.

"Got it" he gritted his teeth and ignored the pain his calf muscles. He could feel the burn as the little Aura he had was working to heal the damage he was causing on forcing his body to sprint even while injured.

Not that Pyrrha was uninjured as well. He could see her limp slightly and if not for the sheer _threat_ behind them, he would've been a lot more worried at her.

 _'Less worrying about what I can deal with later on and more worrying about what I have to deal with right now'_ he thought while taking casual glances behind him to see if there was anything bad coming at him.

Minutes passed before the four Hunters managed to get away from it far enough that Ren could temporary use his semblance to mask them.

"I can't hold this forever and we definitely don't have enough time for me to last before we make to the surface" the Huntsman with a magenta streak gasped out. His breathing was heavy and it wouldn't be strange if he dropped unconscious at any moment.

"We need a plan" said Nora.

"We need a plan" repeated Pyrrha while looking at him particularly.

"I need a plan" Jaune decided to say with a sigh, all while trying to catch _his_ breath as well. In any case, he knew that he was the best chance for a decent change to survive between all of them.

While Ren seemed smart enough, he wasn't in the best condition to think of a plan and keep them invisible to the Grimm at the same time. Nora was out of the question for a plan because chances are her plans would get them killed and Pyrrha wasn't the type to _make_ a plan rather than follow one already made or just brute force through with sheer combat prowess in her part.

Of course back to the planning…Jaune realised he really didn't have a plan. Well a _good_ one that would get them out of here without any issues. It was more in the issue there was no solid plan that he could make to get out of this situation. It was more of a matter of luck, willpower and persistent stubbornness at this point.

 _'Well we can't say that we didn't try if we fail in the end'_ the morbid thought came through his mind for a moment before he started speaking.

"Nora you carry Ren. We need him at his best to recover and use his semblance as many times as he can. Ren how much time do you need to recover to use your semblance in small bursts of say…half a minute?"

"A couple of minutes I guess? It's more of a split between being able to concentrate on hiding us and having enough Aura to use my semblance" Ren answered as he piggybacked on Nora.

"That doesn't give us much time to rest, recover and to plan ahead" he clicked his tongue. This was going to be difficult at _best_. If they were lucky, the Grimm would only start chasing them again when Ren stopped his semblance.

If they were not…well the moment they start moving again they would be trapped.

"Pyrrha you will keep an eye out for the Grimm at _all_ times. We cannot let it trap us without a way to escape" he warned.

"Got it" she nodded.

"And for the rest of the plan…" he sighed, "Well, we run, try to escape and hope for the best at this point. Even attempting to save someone if they're separated would end in all of us dying."

There was a solemn silence between the four Hunters to how bad their situation was. However it was still better than having to deal with countless Grimm hordes trying to kill them. They have a _chance_ on escaping with everyone.

And that may have been why everything seemed to feel even more desperate than if they were trapped in inevitable death.

-o-

"Left path up has the Grimm! We have to go to the right path!" Pyrrha shouted while unloading what little ammo she had left to stall for time for everyone to move as quickly as possible.

"The right path leads _deeper_ into the mines!" Ren protested.

"No time for that Renny! We don't want to be eaten!" Nora clearly didn't share his thoughts or sentiments as she immediately dived into the right path with speed to spare.

Jaune followed quickly behind her before Pyrrha guarded the back as everyone sprinted forward. Fortunately enough, they ended up at another intersection with several different paths with no signs of the Grimm. It had been a good few minutes but it felt a lot longer to him.

Not only did they have to move quickly to ensure that he would have a chance to escape, they had to avoid the Grimm which by no means was stupid. The paths to exit the mine were slowly being plugged up and they didn't know if it could actually do that or not. It was a game of cat and mice and not the good kind.

While the miners were smart enough to make sure going up to the exit of the mine was easily enough, they did not make it easy to navigate the rest of the mine. It was like going through a maze to which you didn't know if a path was blocked off as a trap until you get there.

"Ren, use your semblance again!" Jaune shouted _feeling_ the presence of the Grimm behind them and seeing at least two more different tunnels in front of them. Hopefully they could trick the Grimm on going the wrong way temporary.

"Understood" replied Ren before the feeling of being _disconnected_ from the rest of the world covered his body.

The four Hunters sprinted and quickly moved to what seemed to be another way _up_ compared to the two paths that went further down. However a few seconds later, they backtracked to go further down anyway since the Grimm covered the way up as they didn't; couldn't fight their way up.

"How much longer do we have to go up and down in this place?!" Jaune groaned seeing yet _another_ way up was blocked to them now by a mass of indescribable horror.

"We could always fight our way through" suggested Nora.

"Not a chance" Ren rejected that idea immediately, "There are too many things against us if we try."

"Which is why we're running around like this" said Pyrrha. She kept her weapon in rifle mode with a finger on the trigger at all times.

"Well we might as well keep moving" he shrugged in the end. There was no point in talking about it to waste air on things that they already knew.

By the time Ren couldn't sustain his semblance any longer which was about a minute since he activated it, they managed to move to the end of the tunnel downwards before finding another tunnel that led up and took it quickly enough.

Then…with no semblance to hide them, the Grimm knew that location and started moving again. This of course meant feeling like something was pressing on him metaphorically and the urge to curl up and cry being very real.

It was a curious thing but Jaune suspected that the Grimm that lied in the mine with them didn't actually do anything if it didn't detect anyone nearby. It was a strange thing that he didn't know was in the nature of all Grimm or this one. Nevertheless he wasn't going to begrudge such a benefit.

Tens of minutes passed with the small team of Hunters running as fast as they could up and up and _up_ until…

"Nora! Dodge!"

 _A claw of evil sliced-_

 _Her body threw itself in the way of-_

 _Blood flying-_

" _Pyrrha_!" Jaune stopped into his tracks as Nora and Ren continued on, both not daring to stop to help him. He ignored that fact and instead grabbed onto his partner's body pulling her up while absently grabbing her weapon with his other hand. He had to leave the shield behind seeing there was no time to grab hold of it in time.

Gritting his teeth as pain burst from his legs, he activated his passive skill and instantly gained distance when several more of those claws that were _fired_ by the Grimm narrowly missed him as he evaded exploiting his passive skill several times in a row.

"Jaune…" she sluggishly muttered as her body dripped on him. From what he saw, she took a nasty hit to the side and with exhaustion it caused her body to just collapse when more damage stacked on the one she had throughout the trip.

"No need to speak Pyrrha. I'm going to get you out of here" he mumbled while using the last remains of his Aura to make sure he was keeping up with the two that ran ahead. Whispers of words he couldn't make out were muttered from her mouth but he ignored her.

There was no chance he was just going to abandon her here.

Not that doing this was an easy thing to do. Unlike Nora, he didn't have the sheer strength to carry a person and run at full speed mostly unhindered at the extra weight. In particular, he knew for a fact that Pyrrha was physically stronger than him and that they would have better chances if it was he who was knocked down and she who was carrying.

Then there was the issue that he was being attacked to deal with.

"Argh!"

"Damn!"

"Son of a-"

"Close call!"

There were no direct hits, courtesy to his passive skill allowing him to evade attacks that would've knocked him down and eventually allow the Grimm to drown him again in its substance. However his body rather than his Aura was wearing thin.

At this point he would've _loved_ to have one of his flash-bangs with him…

 _Why the hell didn't he think of this before?!_

Although running while carrying Pyrrha made it a bit awkward, he managed to ruffled through his pockets and with a single hand pulled the trigger for the flash-bang before dropping it while running forward.

He heard a small click and the area which he was in light up-

"G **aH** a **gaUg** hAug **hea** g **gg** h!"

Jaune couldn't help but to smirk, hearing the sound of pain from the Grimm. And he-

" _JAUNE WATCH OUT!"_ Pyrrha screamed causing him to turn to see-

 _Blackclawcannotdodgetoolargewrongpositioncan'tblock-_

It was at that moment that Jaune believed he was going to die. And not only that, also cause the death of his partner whom he was carrying on his back. There was no time to block the attack as he was carrying a burden; there was no time to dodge as there was ironically no time to evade and there was no time for both of them to _survive_ unless-

Black impacted **_white_** before the lattered shattered into pieces but it was _enough_. It gave him enough time to twist his body and-

….

….

….

Jaune's eyes focused as he regained consciousness presuming that he was knocked unconscious by the blow he had taken and more importantly _lived_ through. However he wasn't running nor was he on the ground. He was-

"J-Jaune's aw-wake…" a husky voice seemed to whisper next to him. He couldn't even turn his head because his _everything_ hurt too much for him to do so. However he knew that the voice was Pyrrha and she was alive.

Wounded, injured and in the worst case _broken_ but still alive. He could've cried if his body wasn't in _that_ bad of a shape. He didn't even know how many bones were broken or worse! What if he lost an arm or leg? He couldn't even feel any of his limbs! However he knew there was this ache that he couldn't do anything about.

Pyrrha tried saying something else but it ended up as gargle.

"Pyrrha sleep. Jaune's fine" a female voice commanded. A moment later Jaune thought he heard some calming breaths. However some suffling allowed him to know that the red-head was persistent in trying to stay awake.

He tried to speak to his partner, to say that he was fine with on his own but his voice failed him and he ended up making some sounds out of his mouth that sounded like a strange cry of a wounded animal near death than of a normal person.

Now that he thought about it, why was he seeing the ground moving away from him…

"Easy now" Ren said appearing out of nowhere, "Nora is carrying both of you until we're getting out of here. You took a nasty blow and your semblance barely allowed you to survive through it. It is fortunate you have a defensive semblance considering the impact you took. Don't try to speak for now Mr Arc."

The Huntsman took a look at Pyrrha and added, "That also goes for you Miss Nikos. You are also injured that you should be sleeping right now."

Jaune wondered why the formality with their names. Nora was perfectly fine with calling them with their first name and he was sure that he was the same. He couldn't remember if Pyrrha was like Ren or him in that regard.

He tried speaking to ask that question but failed when no proper words came out of his mouth.

Ren seemed to take it as a sign to talk about other things.

"I would think you would like to know what happened after you fell unconscious" he said.

The Arc numbly nodded as best he could. He was interested in that stuff as well.

"Well" Ren looked a bit embarrassed, "After we went ahead, it took us a bit before we decided that leave you two back there was a bad choice-morally that is and one that would fill us with guilt later on."

"When the _big_ explosion happened!"

"Yes, then. We were worried that you hadn't made it through and went back" he admitted.

"And because he had no choice" Nora let out a laugh.

"That too."

"When we went back and found you two in super-bad shape as well. Like- _really_ bad shape. Ren was worried that you two died" Nora continued to speak and recounted just how bad they were injured to almost exaggerated extents.

A single look to Ren confirmed that they were -thankfully- not in _that_ bad of shape. But from what looks he and Pyrrha were getting, it was close. Too close for them to shake off with ease.

Ren started describing the conditions they were in with his own words.

"Most of your partner's injuries were caused by most of her closed wounds rupturing up along with many more occuring. She almost bled out to death no thanks to that. Thankfully her armour took most of the blow it seemed and she lacked many internal injuries that would've been a lot harder to deal with. That and one of her legs was bent when we got to her. She won't be walking for a while."

Jaune couldn't help but to grimace hearing that.

"As for you…well you were at least weren't bleeding out to death on the outside or had noticeably bent limbs. Unfortunately you have your own share of injuries that your Aura to working on. Most of the damage is internal but in many ways is worse than your partner's seeing that many bones are broken rather than fractured. You've been coughing up blood later."

Ren stopped and looked as if he was about to say anything he missed but Jaune wasn't in the right state of mind to care that much. Thankfully Nora didn't seem concern and blurted out, "Renny you forgot about the Grimm."

Jaune immediately started to shiver. He did _not_ want to be thinking of that thing…ever. He feared he was going to have to go through another round of _nightmares_. His mind wasn't mentally fortified enough to take repeated doses of _that_.

"Well the good news is that it appeared as if you and Pyrrha _haven't_ been affected by the nightmare thing" the eastern male assured him, "Bad news _was_ that it was trying to."

Looking over to the orange-haired Huntress he helpfully added, "Nora helped stop it from trying ever again."

"I didn't manage to kill it but I _did_ manage to cause a cave-in in a small area so…it's kind of trapped unless it has another way around before we actually escape" she said.

"And we're making breaking time in getting out of this mine."

"Hey! I _think_ I can see the exit" Nora proclaim with more hints of joy in her tone than he could even remember during the rest of their escape. He didn't blame her.

"Looks like we're all getting out of this alive."

Jaune really wanted to say some words about how grateful he was to the pair. Despite being complete strangers only a few hours ago, they still helped them. The Hunter business being made more common also turned it into a much harsher profession.

While the Guild managed to make sure Hunters didn't kill each other for petty reasons directly, it still didn't stop some of dying due to 'natural' disasters. He had known stories of Hunters being greedy to the point that they kill other people to just get a bigger share of the profits.

He had seen the results of Hunters being greedy with his own eyes. An entire town dead, all because a small group wanted to _farm_ Grimm for lien. It was a practise that was banned for good reasons in areas with too little Hunters to deal with Grimm before they become Hordes.

But before he could even try to, his consciousness faded to black. All the exhaustion throughout the day accumulated as both his mind and body started to relax and along with it, his will to stay awake as well.

Still…it was a good day to know, that there were Hunters he could trust with his life and that he could meet them.

-o-

 **[Alert: Potential Emergency Issue to Review]**

 **[Bringing up reports of Potential Emergency Issue onto personal Guildmaster A.U.R.A System]**

 **[Uploading Data Gathered…]**

 **[Uploading Data Gathered. Reviewing Data Start…]**

 **….**

 **….**

 **[Alert: Category B-Type NG Threat Activated]**

 **[Coordinates Gathered: 423-535]**

 **[Category B-Type NG Threat still Active. Recommended Action to Eliminate Threat Immediately]**

 **[Request to be sent to appropriate stations to aid in Elimination Task. Authorisation Required]**

 **….**

 **….**

 **[Data Review Complete. Now Coordinating current Data of Threat]**

 **[Nightmare Grimm:**

· **Current Threat Level: B+**

· **Threat Level (+1 Week): A**

· **Threat Level (+1 Month): A+**

 **Recommended Action: Caution. Evacuation. Barricade. Bombardment]**

The _many_ series of messages that she had gotten throughout an entire minute, each appearing a second after the other did nothing to improve the mood of the Guildmaster of the Guild. Actually it made her mood just that much worse considering she was in the middle of trying to track down a potential employee.

An _extremely_ useful one to boot!

And now this…issue has caused Cinder Fall to stop her search short which may lead to _others_ recruiting what is _hers_ first. Of course she could recruit the _poor_ girl later but the loyalty of a lifetime can only be cultivated towards the first saviour and never anyone else.

Despite knowing this along with possibly losing a good recruit that she would probably never find one as good in a decade of searching, Cinder knew she had to change her plans as what can only be called a _Disaster-scaled_ Grimm appeared out of nowhere. She would've liked to throw it at Ozpin to handle but one of _her_ Hunters found out about it first.

And reading the report by a young Huntsman by the name of 'Lie Ren', it seemed that they were the _only_ Hunters in an entire region. The toll of the Mountain Glenn mission was starting to make it apparent that even the Guild's resources weren't infinite. While loyalty and the urge to be a 'hero' were useful things for recruitment, what drove people to become Hunters under were was ultimately _greed_.

Such greed was what drove what was left of a Hunter community in an entire region to migrate rather than endure a few months of hardship with reduced protection and increased danger. In a way, she expected this issue to appear someday. But not like this. Not while allowing a _Nightmare Grimm_ to appear at the same time.

The mission to clear out Mountain Glenn was an especially important one that took years of preparation to ensure that it would happen. It also was also helped by there being substantial funding to aid in getting people for the mission.

Ozpin cooperated with a large number of elite Hunters while she and her Guild contributed by supplying most of the actual supplies and logistic needs of such a large scale mission. This of course meant it was the Guild that was using _millions_ of lien to recruit Hunters for even the most meaningless tasks.

 _Now all of that was going to fail._

"No no" she started to pace, "I can make sure both of these priorities work. Some resources need to be reallocated here and there but it can be done."

Being _displeased_ was the least of what Cinder Fall was feeling right now.

"I will need to issue some…punishment later" she approved of the idea the moment it slipped from her mouth.

Of the five thousand Hunters that she had in Vale, over half of them were associated in some way to the mission to Mountain Glenn. That left the protection of Vale onto the hands of the remaining two thousand five hundred Hunters most of which stayed in the capital city or ones of importance like Signal.

From what she could tell, it was _only_ a day or two's travel to the region from _Signal_.

"Taiyang will need to be notified about this and how _close_ it was to his school" a cruel smirk appeared on her face. Signal was quite useful in training new Hunters no matter where but it still fell under Ozpin's rule.

She had no trouble in making trouble for him and the pet crow Ozpin likes keeping around.

Nonetheless, while she was certain she could wring out some resources out from the blonde man, it is _she_ that needed to deal with it. This meant she needed to act which would mean Ozpin would probably spy on what resources she had, how she used them and which ones she kept in reserves.

An annoyance that only made worse by their games.

Worse yet, the Grimm was the kind to cause many more minor disasters by simply _existing_. Having knowledge of what such a Grimm could do and did in the past didn't make Cinder's stress level decrease at all.

However Cinder Fall _flourishes_ in taking advantage of such situations.

Even if the threat was still contained, it wouldn't be and then it would be bumped into an A rank threat and by then the Vale Council would get involved. Ozpin would probably get involved before that and she had her cards with Taiyang and his proximity to the incident as ammo to get some much needed resources to aid her now or in the future.

Decisions, decisions…

She recalled the most troublesome thing about a Nightmare Grimm even when recently born.

The ability to cause wide scale illusions on the populous would bring Grimm Hordes.

The ability to distort _reality_ allowed it to exist with no form or many at a time along with making its illusions _real_ when close enough.

Just these two abilities working together made it a nightmare (pun intended) to deal with it in a proper traditional fashion of slaying it in combat. Small Hunter teams would be slaughtered if they fought such a creature. The Hunter team (which she was amused to see familiar names) only managed to barely escape and none without injuries from minor to broken bones.

She knew they were lucky.

The Nightmare Grimm had already grown to be able to influence towns in an entire region by its sheer presence. At that stage, it would be considered a B verging on A rank threat that could easily become a much bigger problem than a mere four Hunters could deal with. More frustrating is the tendency of the Grimm forcing nearby people and Hunters into comas before devouring them. Not to mention that it can has a habit of causing Grimm Hordes to also appear to fuel the chaos.

It by all means was unique in how it hunted. It preferred no conflict but rather torture people before eating them. Aura would allow a Hunter to eventually escape but there would be mental scars from the effects for a long time. Therefore it was easy for her to decide to just bombard the entire place and even region if she needed to.

There was no reason to risk Hunters against such a foe and while the Headmaster might disagree with her methods, buildings were _much_ easier to rebuild then repopulation of those at risk.

"Ozpin and Taiyang will be involved…should I send for aid from Atlas?" she wondered before dismissing it, "No, the Guild has a couple of Airships and Beacon has its Bullheads. That will be enough aerial support."

She started contacting her department heads and sent them orders on what to do. Of course, she sent them enough of the report for them to take this seriously. No need for them to accidentally gain confidential information on things they needed to do.

 _"Guildmaster Fall?"_ her secretary was on call.

"Jenny? I thought I replaced you" she managed to admit with amusement knowing that this was her sister.

 _"No I'm Jessica"_ the girl replied, _"Most of your orders are being met but you need to authority missions to secure the area before any…bombardment is allowed according to the laws of Vale."_

"Yes, send a few missions to the Guilds branches nearby the region that there is a need for Hunters to go protect, evacuate and guard civilians while they leave the region. Also send of an Official or two to the region explaining what will happen. If they're lucky, their towns will be sparred. Building entire towns is quite resource draining " said Cinder.

 _"Understood."_

The call ended.

"What a polite and useful girl. I might keep her despite how dull her sister seemed to be at the job" she muttered. More useful people were always a good thing. Useful _loyal_ people were even better. She probably didn't even need to use blackmail at this rate to get her way.

Cinder at the same time as waiting for her orders to be followed started to look up some of the data that was collected. It was uncommon for reports to have data sent directly from the A.U.R.A systems of the Hunters but she supposed this whole situation merited such a look.

Of course while the technological prowess of the A.U.R.A system cannot be denied, especially the large scaled networked version that she can access, a keen eye can sometimes find patterns that a program cannot. Cinder was one of those kind of people which simply could not be surpassed by a program no matter how advanced they are now.

She couldn't help but to be pleased of herself as it took her a few seconds what it took a machine minutes to discover.

"I think I might call in the 'favours' I need in while daylight still rises" she mused. It took her another minute to get through Taiyang's secretary on the matter of _her_ importance. Needless to say, she amused herself by ruining the man's reputation of his _female_ employee while he forced her to wait.

 _"This is the Headmaster of Signal"_ a guff voice came through. Oh? He must have been drinking again. He usually sounded…less pathetic than this.

"Please proceed to talk as if you have any self-esteem left. Or an image that your daughters can be proud of Taiyang. I can assure you that after this conversation, you might be kicked out of the family for being a poor drunk" she said.

 _"What is it Guildmaster Fall?"_

"I frankly need some resources from you. A couple full teams of Hunters. Preferably C rank or higher. Make sure you give me a couple B rank Hunters as well. This is a situation we cannot slack on manpower on."

 _"Huh-what? What are you to demand resources,_ my _people from me?!"_ he demanded.

"Ho?" Cinder made the _most_ amused voice she could, "So you don't know?"

 _"Know what?"_ the irritated man spat out. She was sure that he was trying to contact Ozpin even now. Too bad she had already sent a report about the _inadequacy_ of the man's administration to allow such a situation to evolve.

She had the pleasure to say, " _Category B-Type NG Threat_ Taiyang. I'm sure you know what that means."

The Headmaster that was under Ozpin's thumb sounded amused by that and must have believed that she was calling in a favour because she needed 'help'. Knowing the man's personality she wouldn't put it beyond him to try and seduce her no matter how pitiful his attempts to womanize were.

One ran away to become bandit leader and the other was rumoured to rather die than to stay with him. Well _that_ was what the rumours said anyway.

 _"So what do you need me for? It's not my problem that you are lacking the resources to do anything about it. What about you do me a couple favours before I consider helping you?"_ the call opened up to become a video call and Cinder could see the smug look he was giving her.

Oh she knew what he wanted. She wanted his information network. The man was foolish enough to think that if he had enough resources and effort, he may become Ozpin's _equal_ in some way. It was a poor sitting point to him that he was considered 'lesser' to the Headmaster of Beacon.

Well time to make kick the look off his face before ripping him a new one for his failure and the _massive_ amount of paperwork she would have to deal with later.

Another familiar person flickered in as they entered the call.

"This is Ozpin here. I believe you two are talking about _Category B-Type NG Threat_ issue. Guildmaster Fall has given me a report about it and the request for some of my Hunters and Bullheads to aid her" the man had a serious look and was even slightly glaring at Taiyang.

Good, the report painted the blonde in a bad enough light with a decent amount of credibility for the greyed man to throw the other under the bus this time. Too bad the retired Huntsman to Headmaster didn't notice the glare.

"Ah, Ozpin. Guildmaster Fall here wants me to spend my resources for her. Please tell her to kindly fuck off and deal with her own issues" Taiyang waved her off. The urge to smack his face explicitly increased.

 _"Actually"_ Ozpin pushed his glassed up, _"I'm here to say that you will give her your full support. Our combined effort on the Mountain Glenn mission is already straining our resources and Atlas won't aid us unless we grant them another benefit."_

What the elder Headmaster thought of that was clear on his face.

 _"WHAT?!"_ Taiyang slammed his hands on the table. His face was full of fury and it would've been intimidating if he wasn't the weakest of the three of them by a fairly large margin.

Cinder smirked.

"Did I mention that the region where the Category B-Type NG Threat lies is right next to your precious Signal?" she sneered.

She certainly enjoyed the look on the man's face. It turned from an unhealthy red to purple before remarkably paling white to the point that many women would be jealous! Not to mention it looked crushed by how judging Ozpin seemed to be. Not that she blamed him.

A Nightmare Grimm was only that serious and having one near your jurisdiction long enough without anyone noticing was quite damning. Well it's not like she can't push the rest of her responsibility of the events happening off to him as well. He was definitely not savvy enough to say otherwise.

"Wha-" the useless man's mouth flopped but couldn't come up with an argument.

"While I would be greatly amused to see Ozpin make you want to crawl into a hole and die, I have better things to do. At least a dozen Hunter _teams_ of a respectable rank to make a parameter around the region and many more to get in, evacuate and guard several towns' worth of civilian please" did she mention that she _really_ didn't like Taiyang?

She certainly wasn't going to pay for hiring _that_ many Hunters at once.

Still Taiyang-Long owed her big time. At least she didn't 'request' for him to pay for many of the fees the craftsmen would demand for upgrading quite a lot of her Hunters' gear. That would've quite bankrupted Signal.

Hmm…perhaps she should reward her four little Hunters for giving her this chance. Reinforcing loyalties is often so useful in a world like this. It's too bad that men like Taiyang didn't understand how to manipulate everything to make them look better.

Ozpin had a great many more failures but was never questioned on them for good reason. Playing others as scapegoats is the name of the game.

Now…how is she going to get out of this looking best?

-o-

It would take a week for Pyrrha's arm to heal. While the bone in her arm was fractured into several large bits, her Aura was powerful enough to mend what it would take other average Hunters months in such a short amount of time.

Not to mention it had something to do with her skeleton being tougher than normal via a passive skill.

 _'Man I have to learn a couple of those. They seem really handy to have even if Pyrrha keeps on saying they take a lot of time to gain'_ Jaune thought while observing the entire town packing up their essentials. Right now they were on standby on Guild's orders.

"Hey, looks like we're going to be heading out in a few days."

Jaune hummed as Nora sat next to him, "Yeah. Things seemed to be picking up with the Guild taking control. I'm surprised that there aren't a lot more people complaining or refusing to leave."

"That's because the Guild will just leave them if they don't follow orders. Hunters that come from the Academy branches might try to but those from the Guild don't actually care that much about the people they protect" she shrugged.

"Unless it has to do with money."

"Unless it has to do with money" she agreed.

"That's really depressing when you think about it. Being a 'Hunter' should be more than just trying to make more money" he sighed.

Surprisingly enough, Nora seemed completely serious right now. There was no hint of her being the…excitable girl that he thought she was.

"A long time ago being a 'Hunter' meant those who would venture into the woods and hunt for food. Later it became those who hunted down Grimm instead and there were probable more in between the two definitions. Why can't the term come to be known for those who work for money?" she asked.

He glanced at her before deciding not to answer that. He didn't want to answer that when it meant possibly spitting on the profession that many of his ancestors held to protect people rather than to just make money.

As such he decided to just ask a question on his mind, "I haven't gotten the chance to ask but why did you two take the truck to escape in? I mean, I'm _glad_ because that's part of the reason I was in the area with Pyrrha…"

"Oh that?" she giggled, "Renny drove it because Pyrrha told him to. She was awake a bit longer than you and she seemed really persistent in taking _that_ truck of all things before she fainted. We thought she was trying to steal it or something but decided to go on it anyway."

"There wasn't enough room so things got a bit awkward in how we would all fit in" she mumbled out as an afterthought.

"Still didn't change how I thought Pyrrha was some pretty bandit of course! She had the feeling when she _really_ glared at me for some reason" she gleefully said.

"And what about me?" he asked.

She shrugged, "Her boy-toy? You're not the weakest Hunter but certainly not the strongest. You're pretty enough that I can see her using you like that."

Jaune managed a glare before falling into a deep blush. Was _that_ how everyone saw them?

"Kidding! I was just kidding you know" she slammed her hand on his back as a slap. Jaune knew that she meant this in a friendly way but _boy_ did have a lot of strength. He was pretty sure that Ren was having masculinity problems thanks to this girl.

He certainly did at the moment.

Letting out a sigh, Jaune started to get up to visit his partner again. Nora followed next to him as she was going to visit Ren as well. According to him, he was suffering from 'Aura Burnout' which was something that happened when you tried to push out more Aura than you have.

Fortunately the side-effects were temporary and not permanent and it was 'only' the feeling that his body was burning from the inside that plague his fellow Huntsman.

"Hopefully Ren will be able to move soon. Having another body to defend everyone would nice to have" he mused.

If Nora missed a step and frowned, he didn't notice it.

"Yeah…" she muttered before opting to ask, "Hey Jaune…do you think it was wrong that everyone was hurt a lot more than me?"

Blinking in surprise to _that_ kind of question he saw that she was fidgeting with a body language that was all but screaming that she wanted to run away on first hostility, "Well I'm not glad that you're less injured than everyone else."

She flinched.

"But I'm not angry that you're not" he flicked her forehead, "We're Hunters and we know going on dangerous missions could end in death. It's in the job description. And what's a mere injury to actually _surviving_ a bad encounter with a foe and one we could not beat?"

"Besides, I doubt that Ren is in any way negative that you haven't gotten as injured as the rest of us. In fact, it much easier to believe that he's really relieved that you haven't put yourself in that much danger" he added. God knows how worried Pyrrha was all the time when he did.

"I see" Nora smiled as they quickly entered the building where their partners were.

Inside was a make-shift medical centre which only housed a couple of people who got injured recent. However there was a segregated room was quite large, much larger than the one everyone else was crammed into.

Jaune didn't care much of the politics but apparently there was something about some groups of people wanting to use the better resources on _their_ people rather than on the Hunters even if it meant more injuries or even deaths.

They were probably anti-faunas reasons as well but the Guild using its resources at least within Vale to _crush_ that settlement and practically forced everyone to agree that Hunters getting good treatment was good no matter what they looked like or what species they were. Therefore, Hunters usually got better rooms and deals than most people though this already happened since angering the people who protect you is a bad idea.

"Hello Jaune! Nora" Pyrrha looked happy when they had entered.

Ren looked up from his book, "Have you decided that not being that injured is a good thing yet?"

"Hehe yeah. Had a good talk with Jaune about it before I saw how stupid it looked to be depressed because I wasn't that hurt when we escaped and stuff" she nervously rubbed the back of her head.

Jaune rolled his eyes when the now less depressed Huntress decided to dive bomb Ren into a hug while the latter tried and failed to move away in time. The panicked look on his face turned to a resigned one quickly as well. Seeing the two Hunters getting along with each other, he decided to move to sitting next to his own partner.

"How's the recovery?" he asked.

"Pretty well" she admitted, "Although having an arm in a cast like this is bothersome I can handle the week it would take for me to heal my broken bones there."

"You do realise that it usually takes months for a fracture you experienced to heal right?" he deadpanned.

"Aura" she retorted before thinking up and adding, "That and training on healing internal injuries with Aura and a few passive skills affecting the healing rate as well. It may have caused years of discomfort but it was well worth it especially with the lack of danger I had during that time when my teachers decided to stack on learning many passive skills at once."

"I'm guessing the experience was pretty bad" he remembered the training he needed to learn not one but _two_ passive skills at once and combine them into one functioning one. Painful was the _least_ of it.

"Not particularly. If you remember, it's only with the extremely powerful passive skills like your movement based one that causes a lot of pain to learn. Over half the ones I have learnt all relate around improving what the natural body does with no Aura actively boosting them" she shrugged.

"Yeah yeah, you've explained this to me before."

"Then please don't act as if you've forgotten all about my lessons" Pyrrha huffed without much heat. Off to the side Jaune could hear Nora laughing about something.

"Of course, I can already see what you would do to me if I ever forgot a single one. I never knew what people meant by 'Hell Training' until I met you" he smirked.

Pyrrha whacked his head using her cast for that comment.

"Is there anything else you wish to talk to me about?" she then asked, "There isn't much to do right now and I would prefer to know what's happening than not. I know that the Guild is mobilising but not much else."

Jaune decided to fill her in, "Well from what some of the rumours are saying, the Guild is bringing in several airships and a lot of Hunters. Some of them are from Signal and some of them are even from Beacon. It looks like the Grimm we encounter _really_ got the higher-ups scared. Well there are _other_ less truthful rumours going around like the Guild kicking people out or even going to kill everyone but those are minor and are usually by those who dislike the Guild in the end."

"Besides that, there's a lot of working in evacuating the entire region. Signal is making some room but I heard that they are setting up a few new towns as we speak for people to settle in and spread out."

"Other than that…well considering the _firepower_ they are bringing, I wouldn't be surprise if they decided to carpet bomb the mine…and then everything else just to kill that one Grimm.

"I cannot imagine what they know that makes that Grimm so frightening. More than we know that is" she said.

Memories of the horrors that _thing_ made him watch caused Jaune to twitch a bit, "The nightmares I suppose. If it could affect people even here when it's main people was in the mine or was able to split into smaller ones that could do the same effect…well Grimm Hordes will be much more common if that's the case."

"And that's something that can cripple a Kingdom."

"Exactly" he pointed out, "Anything else you want to talk about?"

"Yes I have a few questions" asked Ren.

Jaune being surprised naturally flinched in surprise before falling off his chair in surprise. His fall caused Nora to laugh, Pyrrha to chuckle and Ren to just look confused more than anything else.

Sighing, the other Huntsman asked, "I suppose my first question would be… _what just happened_?"

"Lost my balance. Happens sometimes when I'm surprised and not in a combat situation. No need to focus on controlling my body that precise outside one you know. Not as stressful if I'm always combat ready" he grumbled in return.

"That's…an interesting way to see it. Nora is similar in that regard" Ren admitted before further asking, "But I wish to ask about the colours of your Auras."

Seeing that Pyrrha momentarily froze for a split second, Jaune figured that this wasn't going to be a good conversation.

"What about it?" he voiced.

Scratching his cheek absently Ren said, "Although not many Hunters believe in the rumours, I want to inquire if your Aura colour is indeed _black_ Pyrrha."

That time she flinched. Not looking at his partner Jaune replied immediately with a much more forceful tone than usual, "And what does it matter of what _colour_ her Aura is Ren?"

Colour was one of the things that were fought for in the Great War. Colour meant individuality and all that went with it. There was a reason why the tradition of naming based off colours and as far as he knew, _black_ wasn't ever discriminated against over other colours.

"Not much actually. I'm more interested in the history of those who have black Aura" Ren shrugged.

Raising an eyebrow, Jaune allowed the other Huntsman to speak and saw that Nora tensed up the moment that he tensed his own body for a possible battle. Seeing that, he noted that there he was at least a bit similar in that both of them let their guards down when they didn't need to. Both of them didn't have the sheer dexterity to make guarded movements so fluid.

"According to previously popular and now very much now less popular superstitions, those who have Black Aura will bring calamity" seeing the expression on Jaune's face turn more vicious, Ren hurriedly added, "But even the most simplest studies showed that this was incorrect and that they were just discriminating against innocent people."

"And your point?" if this didn't affect Pyrrha now, then what was the point of bringing this up. He could tell how uncomfortable his partner was and it was quite already damning of how quiet she was.

Ren looked at Nora and Nora looked at Ren.

"Both of us were brought up on more…traditional views and that may have skewered our world-views a bit."

"Meaning they froze in place when I accidentally used my semblance without hiding my Aura properly" Pyrrha started speaking before letting out a sigh, "I forget sometimes that you are quite isolated to the norms of other Hunters Jaune. And I forgot to hide my Aura since I was too used to your presence and lack of reaction."

"Is there actually a _problem_ with having Black Aura? Or even Aura that is darker in colour?" he looked at her in disbelief.

Sure there was a problem with Faunas mainly from what happened in the Great War and with the White Fang but he didn't know that there were other issues humanity had with certain people.

"You could say it's the same problem that people have with Faunas. There isn't _exactly_ a problem but there still is one. While not many people would care enough to make a disturbance over it, it will still disturb enough people that it may become a problem" she replied.

That was…a worrying thought.

"It is often better to just hide things that society isn't accepting of than airing it to everyone" Ren commented.

That wasn't helped by how casual Ren seemed to be in 'hiding' certain traits that society didn't like. The home he grew up in didn't have the numbers or space to simply give people 'room' if they wanted to hide something for long.

Sooner or later, people would notice something was off and people just dealt with it. This over the years caused the community he lived with to just accept everything that came to a certain extent, as long as it doesn't harm anyone or their honour.

"During my time as a tournament fighter, my manager suggested to hide it to make a showing that I don't need to use much Aura to beat everyone. She was mildly surprised to see what my Aura colour was though it may as well be influenced by what my semblance does. She eventually told me that it was a gesture to cultivate my image as the 'Invincible Girl'" she said with distaste.

If Ren and Nora recognised that term and connected it to Pyrrha, they didn't show. But Jaune didn't know what the deal was with people having an issue of the colour of one's Aura. He had white Aura. It wasn't like there weren't others with the same Aura colour and it didn't mean anything.

"But what's the deal with having Black Aura and that being bad?" he asked.

"An old story. A legend you could say" said Ren.

Jaune looked for him to continue.

With a hefty breath the Huntsman started talking, "Long, _very_ long ago when the use of Aura was much more primitive and technology was in the dark ages, there were two men. One, the King with a bright _white_ Aura and another, his general of a pure _black_ Aura. Both were renowned men in combat and together they created what is known as a pre-kingdom Kingdom that later fell in history."

"The story goes that despite the fame and glory that he had, the general eventually turned jealous of his friend and chose to betray him. The King eventually slayed him in combat and the world hailed the King even more while scorning the General. However this wasn't the end. The General in a desperate act on the verge of death when the King left him to die turned to the power of Grimm to get his revenge and his Black Aura merged with them becoming the first Grimm-Hybrid. A human tainted and corrupted by the power of Grimm."

The Blonde Huntsman wanted to interrupt but chose to let the story finish before asking any questions. For anyone to think that Pyrrha would turn into a Grimm-Hybrid was… _stupid_ at best.

"Using this newfound power, the General now known as the Beast stuck the Kingdom and brought calamity to it by leading the Grimm to attack as if an army. Eventually the King would eventually slay the Beast once more but in the end succumb to his wounds. With his death, the Kingdom fell apart and history went on remembering the King with hope and the General with betrayal. The story kept on getting passed on with certain details being remembered over others like how the General had Black Aura and turned into a Grimm and resented those who had that colour of Aura ever since. The superstition came about that way although communication and schools helped in curbing them significantly."

"Interesting…"

That was all he could say about that matter. While not life-defining or in any way effective against his relationship with Pyrrha, all he could say about it was that it was interesting.

However, "Is there another point of this story? I can hardly find anything that would affect my partner according to you."

"No" Ren shook his head, "Just how the superstition originally came about. It is just as likely that the story is false as it actually happening in the past. People often try to blame all the wrongs of the world onto one thing and are stubborn on it. There will certainly be people that would blame Hunters for the evacuation."

"Because it affects their livelihood" he frowned. He knew that was one of the first thing people tend to focus on though he never experienced people actually acting because of it.

"Anything else" he looked towards Nora for a moment before glancing back at Ren.

"No." "Nope."

Hearing that, Jaune turned his thoughts on anything else he needed to remember.

"Oh yeah, did you manage to keep the metal you extracted Pyrrha?" he asked. And when she replied with 'yes', he was in joy. The total cost of the new weapon, new shield and complete armour set totalled up to 900 000 Lien which was just short of a million lien.

With his just over 600 000 Lien (which he deposit half to Ash), he would only be able to purchase the new weapon and shield. However doing the mission from Ash would not only net him 100 000 Lien for free but adding on the official mission from Signal and he would gain more. And adding on the 50 000 Lien worth of metals Pyrrha collected as well as the 100 000 Lien reward from the Guild for discovering the Nightmare Grimm, it would mean it was possible he would have enough to buy _everything_ at once they returned to Signal.

Jaune checked the current amount of cash he had.

 **Name ID: Jaune Arc**

 **Huntsman ID: 341544**

 **Huntsman Rank: D**

 **Stats: [+]**

 **Skills: [+]**

 **Money: 470 225 Lien**

He would lose another 250 000 Lien for paying off the remaining of the money needed for his weapon. The shield would be free which leaves 220 000 Lien left for the armour. Adding on the 50 000 Lien from the metals, well _half_ of that (he would share with Pyrrha no matter what she said) would still mean that he would need 55 000 Lien for the last bit of armour he wanted.

He hoped the Grimm Subjugation mission would give enough lien for that else they would need to spend a few more days to weeks to collect the rest of the lien and perhaps more to ensure he could pay his part in accumulations.

Essentially while he would still be broke even when collecting the rest of the money he needed, his survivability would be much greater. And with enough training with a new proper Hunter weapon, he would be more combat effective in battle as well which would led to more dangerous missions which would mean more money.

With that in mind, Jaune decided to just wait and see what would happen while chatting casually with everyone else in the room. It was better to forge bonds with other Hunters while he could. Networking was a real thing that Hunters did to bring in favours when needed.

It was a bit sad that the total number of Hunters who would willingly fight with him without a moment's thought numbered to three including his partner currently. He might as well bring that number up to five.

-o-

The trip to Signal was half making sure that the contents that Ash requested to what seemed like weeks ago (and in fact was only single week ago) and half keeping up with the requests of the Guild. Even Pyrrha wasn't exempt with her arm still being in a cast to her duty as a Huntress. A total of several dozen different Hunter teams worked together to keep the new borders while only a fraction leaving to protect the many more civilians from danger.

In the end, it took a full week to what would be a day's worth of travel to a Hunter to transport all ten thousand civilians from five different towns away from the region which was then promptly raze to the ground to eliminate any trace of what the Guild called the Nightmare Grimm.

This action…did not exactly put the Guild in a good light considering some of the restrictions on classifications giving little information to civilians.

However the good news was that the Guild was less restrained on restricting information to Hunters. Therefore it was easy to gather information about the fuss about the Grimm that they had encountered. The Nightmare Grimm from what he could gather was a monster in the simplest form. It was both almost completely immune to physical harm and also affected a number of things from even kilometres away.

Even trying to fight it in the way a traditional Hunter would was a death sentence.

Knowing in more details of what that Grimm could do if not restraint, Jaune shivered at the sheer number of lives that would be killed let alone affected. It had been a long time since the last time a Nightmare Grimm managed to gain enough influence to affect a Kingdom and it almost brought complete ruin on its own.

There were only a couple other things of note that happened that Jaune cared about. One was that Ren and Nora left the very temporary party to follow the Guild rather than head back to Signal. They left on a relatively good terms with promises of fighting together in the future.

The second was apparently he managed to gain _some_ control over his semblance and can finally be called a novice in using it. Pyrrha was happy that he had managed to achieve the first stage in controlling his semblance.

Jaune on the other hand wasn't that pleased. There was too much bad blood with it even when Pyrrha told him it was much more useful now. Still, he would train in using it and to test its limits now and to see if the changes affected him more negatively.

Now…now, the pair was at the gates of Signal, blocked out because of _reasons_.

"It feels like forever since I last seen Signal" Jaune muttered. Currently he had to deal with the paperwork to send the content of the truck with the stuff the craftsman Ash wanted since the people he sent for probably died.

"Indeed" Pyrrha absently nodded while enjoying the fact she didn't need to do the paperwork as the 'follower' of the party between them. Now that her arm was fully recovered, she needed not to wear a cast on it anymore.

"I need a new shield" she sighed knowing she needed to make the request to a person she disliked.

Jaune winced hearing that since it was sort of his fault of not grabbing it when he could, "Sorry."

"Don't worry about it Jaune. It was either my shield or my weapon which would've been a much _worse_ lost if you haven't collected it for me" she smiled grabbing her weapon by its hilt.

He had a feeling that after everything else that happened, she would be using _other_ reasons to train him even more. While Jaune accepted the training to get stronger, he was still a person that wasn't masochistic enough to _enjoy_ training to the point his body often broke down no matter how much his partner said there was worse.

It took him another hour to finish the paperwork to approve, inspect and send over the ores to Ash and by then he was starting to get hungry. However, Pyrrha had other ideas and immediately moved to find Ash to commission a new shield to use. Jaune had no choice but to follow her.

They moved past the people who seemed to recognise his partner, past the door to the boiling room and past all of that and went into a familiar office with an annoyed-looking man that seemed to glare at them.

"You two are _late_ " he accused.

"We had a problem. Several actually, the Guild can tell you if you want. That and your drivers were gone and dead when we got there so we had to filled in the paperwork to give you your stuff which will come in a few hours" she smoothly replied.

Ash stared at them for another moment before spitting to the side, "Bah! Fine! I can't decry you if the Guild interferes. For _them_ to move means the problem is a lot more serious than your little heads can tell."

"I'm pretty sure they gave us the information on how serious it was" Jaune protested.

"And I bet there are _many more_ things you don't know that goes over your head. The Guild is a big organisation and Signal is as well. Not to mention _Beacon_ seemed to have been involved from all the rumours that have been running about."

"Wait" Jaune paused, "You actually know what was happening?"

" _Rumours_. I don't actually know what is happening besides a lot of people being called to some special mission before you two got back here" the craftsman empathised.

"Well then, we should get back to business" said Pyrrha.

Ash looked at her and down to her waist before looking back up to her eyes, "You need a new shield. That will cost you."

"I know" she grimaced.

He then looked at Jaune before muttering, "Well it's a good thing that I managed to get your armour done. If you have the money now I can fit you in it now. Really doubt it though but it would be better to run about with incomplete armour than no armour."

Hearing that Jaune prompted Pyrrha and she took out of the mix slab of metals and presented it to Ash who looked at it curiously.

"Now where did you get this?"

"It was the core of a giant metal spike that almost killed us in the mine. I extracted the most valuable parts since it would catch a good price for its size" she shrugged. She allowed the man to grab the metal out of her hand before inspecting it with a small scope pinned on his eye.

"Yeah…might get you ten grand for you" he started to say.

"A hundred grand" she immediately retorted.

"Not worth it, at best it's worth twenty."

"Ninety. Some of the stuff you want is probably mixed in with it. You can see how well it does as a mixed metal."

"Hmm…twenty five then."

"That's way too low. I can get at least _twice_ that with any other craftsman. I wonder what they would say for you to try to undercharge something so valuable."

"…Fifty and _that's_ final" he gritted out.

Pyrrha happily smiled saying, "Deal!"

Seeing the look, Ash clicked his tongue before settling down on his chair. Meanwhile Jaune was just confused on what happened. Why did Ash undercharge so much and why did Pyrrha _overcharge_ so much as well?

"Anyway, let's finish our previous business before we start on anything else. I believed I have finished the weapons to the specs that you two desired them to be. Know that I highly recommend you test them out in training before using them on the field. It won't do much to my reputation if you two died because something didn't work the way you thought it would."

Ash lifted a cloth veil and presented the two with two very distinct weapons. One was the same red the rest of Pyrrha's equipment had while the other was of a pale silver-white that was not dissimilar to how his family's equipment tended to be. Both of them were swords, Jaune didn't doubt that but all the options made them look so different.

Pyrrha's weapon was a lot thinner than his but was longer and much more pointed. His own new weapon was bulkier and looked a bit skeleton-like as Ash said it would but that just meant it could be upgraded further in the future.

That is…if he had enough lien to do so. He had little doubt it would take _years_ to have the money to upgrade his weapon to the specs that the craftsman envisioned it would become.

"First off, time to complete that contract we have with each other."

A notification appeared.

 **[Accept Transfer of 250 000 Lien from Jaune Arc's A.U.R.A Account towards Signal Craftsman: Ash to complete Craftsman Contract? Y/N?]**

Jaune accepted and the 250 000 Lien from his account was transferred to Ash. Seeing that, Ash further said, "Remember that you _can_ get a partial refund if the weapons aren't what you want though I really doubt you will be unsatisfied with my creations."

Pyrrha picked up her weapon and smiled slightly before clicking something causing the weapon to clearly shift into a spear before she clicked something else to turn it back into a sword before the blade seemed to separate loosely.

"Hey! No testing weapons in my workshop!" Ash shouted in protest.

Still it did nothing to stop the smile on his partner's face. Seeing that, Jaune picked up his own weapon and noted how much _heavier_ it was to his previous destroyed sword. He tested its balance and found that he needed to get used to it more to use it effectively.

"Now for the rest of my business with Jaune" said Ash.

A shield was thrown at him and Jaune caught it. Like the sword, it was much heavier than his previous shield but was likely several times more effective. It was a bit bigger than the size of Pyrrha's own (lost) shield.

"That's for the person mission I sent you two for" he grunted, "Come back in a week if you want to know if the ores _do_ make good for me. _Then_ I will grant you a third of that armour set I just made."

He checked the amount of lie he had left. It was 220 000 Lien, enough for two thirds but nothing more. There was also half the price the metals got which was an extra 25 000 Lien but also the mission reward that they had took but yet to have 'collected'.

Still, he _might_ be able to buy the whole armour set at once if it all added up to beyond 300 000 Lien but Jaune decided not to.

"We'll come back in a week. That way I can at least get _all_ of the armour instead of just pieces of it from you" he said.

"And I need a new shield. A hundred grand should be enough for that" said Pyrrha following up.

"Two hundred" Ash denied, " _You're_ stuff needs higher grade stuff than the blonde idiot. I'm not losing money because of you."

The two stared before the red-head Huntress politely asked, "Jaune. Can you please leave without me? I have some… _things_ I need to talk to Ash about."

Jaune couldn't have run faster. He needed to finish mission they took. Yes, that was what he was going to do.

-o-

"Thank you very much for using our services" said Akame in another bow. Jaune blushed seeing the action of the girl and moved to wave his hands to make her stop.

He left quickly else the girl would do something else that was extremely strange and embarrassing for him to witness in relation to him.

From the mission that the reward was reduced down to 70% thanks to the taxes of not only the Guild and Vale but also Signal, Jaune got 40% of the rewards while Pyrrha got 60% of it thanks to the difference in their Hunter ranks.  
As Jaune feared, he hadn't gotten a full 55 000 Lien to gain a full 300 000 Lien. Instead the total reward the party had gotten from the mission was enough that his split ended up as a total of 23 635 Lien. The pay wasn't as high as he thought but that just may have been due to region differences in prices for Hunter kills.

It would make sense to subtlety push Hunters into more dangerous lands with less people to help trim Grimm there instead of near cities and major settlements where Hunters and many other defences were abundance.

"Now…what should I do?" he wondered before his eye moved down to his new sword.

He grinned before moving towards a training ground. Sure he didn't have Pyrrha with him but what was the worst that could happen?

-o-

"Honestly Jaune, an _hour_. I left you alone for an hour and you ended up in the infirmary. What were you thinking testing out your new weapon without me? Do you know how dangerous it is to use a weapon that you're unfamiliar with?" she started lecturing him.

"Sorry…" he groaned out. He did _not_ expect the recoil to be that bad. Jaune had to admit the firing power of his weapon was high but it seemed he needed time to get use to the recoil, at so he wasn't knocked out by it.

That was super embarrassing to happen…

"I know you want to do things on your own but _please_ try to stay safe" she sighed. Meanwhile, Pyrrha seemed to have gotten the hang of her own weapon very quickly.

Jaune groaned knowing that Pyrrha would never let him fight on the field before he managed to become at least competent in using his new weapon. That meant more training and that was something he knew he wasn't looking forward to.

"Don't worry, I _will_ make sure you are strong enough that you can deal with your weapon as if you're breathing!" she assured him.

Jaune sighed. He would be lucky if he managed to kill another Grimm in a month.

 **End of Arc 2: A Gear of the Guild**

* * *

 **A/N: Well this is the end of the second arc of the series. I'm actually going to take a break from this series. I've written almost 200K words including this chapter without a break to write any of the other series I wanted to do for the last couple of months. Now that the arc ended, I'm getting back to writing other stuff. Which means, yes this series will be going on a hiatus.  
**

 **I'm not sure if I would be able to continue writing the series or not. Writing is a hobby of mine which takes up an extreme amount of time. The only reason I had been able to write this series so much is that I have been on break for the last few months with nothing else to do. Writer block is a huge issue to any writer and while some may allow content quality to drag down to deliver content, others just stop because the quality of what they would later write wasn't good enough and eventually they would stop.**

 **I have been starting to get writer's block for this series. There are things I want to write into the series but how the series is set up makes it impossible for me to do so. Hell, I've already written the _complete_ end-game abilities of both Jaune and Pyrrha of this series and boy they are _OP_. Abilities that they would _never_ get in the story because the time needed to past for them to reasonably get those abilities would need to cover 10+ Arcs (So...round a million words?). Something that is too impossible for me to write that much.  
**

 **However if and that's a big _if_ this series doesn't continue, I'll make sure to upload all my notes of the future arcs and more into a compilation chapter of sorts while adding more detail into my notes for everyone to 's even a (incomplete) glossary!  
**

 **As my next series (yes I'm actually have been writing all this time. That is why this chapter took so long), it's going to be a relatively short one. No more than...60K words I estimate with shorter chapters? Unless the dozen chapters I planned out gets extended that is.** **I intend it to be a comedy series but my writing somehow made it too serious...I need to work on that.**

 **Anyway, I see you when I post the new series 'Cinder has a Mid-Life Crisis' *pending name* *Actually working on making sure Cinder _actually_ has a mid-life crisis in the first few chapters*  
**


End file.
